Politehnica Timisoara Under 15 was this season the revelation of our academy in the Elite League. The boys coached by Paul Codrea reached the semi-final tournament, hosted these days in Arad, but they only needed one goal, in the last match against Universitatea Craiova, won 2-1, to advance to the final phase!

The under-15s started the tournament hosted by the “Banatul” arena in the Sânnicolau Mic district of Arad very well. On Friday 6 May, our team beat ACS Gloria Tăuții-Măgherăuș 5-1 with goals from Bogdan Bratu (2 goals), Andrei Mircea, Damian Bogdan and Titu Bojin. Unfortunately, game 2 on Sunday was lost to hosts Atletico Arad 0-2.

Today, on the last day of the tournament, Poli needed a win by at least two goals to advance, instead of the Oltenians, because in the three-way standings (Atletico, U Craiova and Poli – 6 points each) the points difference was to count and Atletico won by score (8-2) against Tăuții-Măgherăuș (Atletico – U Craiova 1-3 and U Craiova – Tăuții Măgherăuș 5-2 were the other results of the tournament). Our team also had some bad luck before the start of the decisive duel with Universitatea Craiova. During the warm-up, the starting goalkeeper – Albert Păsule – and one of the central defenders – Luca Ardel – suffered medical problems. The Blue and Whites opened the scoring from the penalty spot at the start of the second half, while our team came back in the end through Bogdan Șteta and Răzvan Goia. What’s more, at 2-1, Poli came close to scoring the qualifying goal!

Politehnica U15 (vs. Univ. Craiova): Enășescu – Fotoniu, Goia, Cercel, Nagy, E. Adam, Kulcsar, Bojin, Roșu, Șteta, An. Mircea. Also entered: Kiss, A. Radu, Al. Matei, R. Laza and B. Bratu. Coach: Paul Codrea.

Atletico Arad and Universitatea Craiova advanced from the 2nd semi-final tournament to the final tournament. While FCSB and Farul qualified from semi-final tournament 1. It can be said that Politehnica U15 was in the 2021-22 edition among the six best teams in the country in the Elite League in this age group.

“It was a good, balanced tournament, with three very good teams and the team from Maramureș, which was clearly the grey of the group from the beginning, but they also fought and made a pretty good impression. We unfortunately come out with six points and we only missed one goal. But I want to note the progress of the kids I coached, because we really saw a lot of growth and progress. And I think that’s the most important thing. The kids have progressed, they have gained confidence. They saw that they can cope at a high level and we hope that next year we can keep the bar high and, why not, improve this result” Paul Codrea, Politehnica U15 head coach.

Batch Politehnica U15: Albert Păsule, Mihai Enășescu, Ștefan Botoca, Mario Matei (goalkeepers) – Eric Adam, Luca Ardel, Laurențiu Axinia, Titu Bojin, Bogdan Bratu, Alexandru Cercel, Luca Chiș, Răzvan Diaconu, Călin Fazekaș, Darius Fotoniu, Răzvan Goia, Rareș Laza, Alexandru Matei, Medard Kulcsar, David Nagy, Angelo Radu, Deian Ranisav, Fabian Roșu, Rareș Sîrbu, Bogdan Șteta, Andrei Mircea, Damian Bogdan (field players). Coach: Paul Codrea.