retired_puly1364

Transfers

PLAYERS

I made four in coming transfers with players without selling anyone.

Sergei Lepmets
"I hope to be in Romanian Divizia A next season!"

Sergei Lepmets is very talented Estonian goalkeeper, who is under 20 years old. He comes from Estonian outfit Levadia, after being second choice behind another even more talented goalkeeper Artur Kotenko, He has some minuses, but undoubtedly he's set to be a star in Romania and obvious choice for no. 1 place in the team.

Argyris Giangoudakis
"I'm here to give my best."

Argyris Giangoudakis was in my eyes a good bargain from free transfers with a chance to change some things during the season. He is from Cyprus, though far from the national team roster. 24-year old plays at right side of either defence or midfield.

Tiberiu Beceru
"Hopefully I'll be useful."

Tiberi Beceru is another right-sided player who I loaned from another Romanian side Poli Iasi. He has loads of Divizia B experience and has played nearly 80 games in Romanian second division, though never has made it to the divizia A. He is a midfielder only.

Mircea Vasile Rus
"Happy to return."

Rus is our only buy with some Romanian Divizia A experience. He is right-back and I think he'll be used. He came for very little one thousand pounds from CFR Tim, who plays in divizia A. Rus started his career at U Cluj and is 27-years old.

COACHES

I did a lot of background changes and in the end I think I'm happy with the final result as our training is no organized, but before it was hard to work with 2 coaches on part-time contract.

The backroom staff:

Staff

Friendlies

We had six pre-season friendlies and we played quite good games and goalkeeper Lepmets had 3 clean-sheets and some very positive signs were shown. Espescially in that 3:0 win.

Friendlies

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10th of August

Cyprus Journey

Shmerini Online

Tursk announces changes ahead of his first game

Manager Tanel Tursk has announced the squad for the game with Faroe Islands, a new member of background staff and a friendly with Barbados.

Tursk bringed his assistant from Romanian club FC Universitatea Cluj to be his assistant also in Cyprus due to his knowledge of Greece language. Dan Anca is the new guy helping him out in making Cyprus outfit stronger.

Though, Tursk made some suprise choices for the first team picking up few debutants. Most notably the big hope of the country - Kyriakos Pavlou, who replaces injuried Gianni Okkas.

Also, he announced about friendly with exotic Barbados. "It will hopefully bunch up our morale and few wins wouldn't do bad," said Tursk. The match will be held in the 3rd of September.

The schedule for remaining games in 2005:

17th of August - Faroe Islands (A)
3rd of September - Barbados (H) (Friendly)
7th of September - Switzerland (H)
8th of October - Ireland (H)
12th of October - France (A)
16th of November - Wales (H) (Friendly)

26 players called-up for Faroese game:

Cyprus Squad
Okkas and Kyriakou ruled out with injuries later on

17th of August 2005 (Matchday)

Starting Line-Up
Bench: Kyriakos Pavlou, Giorgos Nikolaou, Simos Krassas, Andreas Ioannidis, Giorgos Theodotou, Dimitris Daskalakis, Antonis Giorgallidis

Typos

Cyprus records huge victory

Double from Giasemakis and goals from Michalis Konstantinou, Niklos Nikolaou and debut strike from Alexis Garpozis gave Cyprus a 5:2 victory over Faroe Islands side.

A warm August night saw Cyprus recording one of it's bigest wins in it's history after a great game in Faroe Island. Debut game for new manager showed that a future may look bright for Cyprus.

"Players gave me a great debut and comfortable feeling when I have to return back and play again with them. They showed great will and I'm happy that few of my suprise picks worked well. Eventhough, it was Faroese we are talking about, we won it with the score like do most of the teams in Europe and it's obviously a great sign," said Tursk after the game.

Giasemakis, who was the hero of the game with his 2 goals said: "I'm happy to reach the five goal mark with my natioal team and that was a major boost for my confidence and my national team average goal per game tally since now it is a goal per five games and it will hopefully improve even further. Though I was a bit lucky that Okkas missed that game."

Faroe Islands 2:5 Cyprus
30., 48. Janus Rasmussen - 4., 22. Giasemakis, 33. Michalis Konstantinou, 35. pen. Nikos Nikolaou, 67. Alexis Garpozis

Player Statistics

retired_puly1364

August 2005

U Cluj Monthly

Results:

20th of August - Divizia B - Week 1 - FCM Resita 1:2 FC Universitatea Cluj (46. Cătălin Petrescu, 88. Dan Codreanu)

24th of August - Divizia B - Week 2 - U Cluj 1:0 Libery S. (58. Doran Gora)

27th of August - Divizia B - Week 3 - Corvinul 2005 0:3 U Cluj (1., 7., 23. Doran Goga)

31st of August - Copa Romaniei - 1st Round - FC Brasov 1:0 U Cluj

League Table

The debut month went well. Espescially in league, where we showed secure game, though the loss in the Cupa Romaniei first round was painful, but it gives us a chance to fully concentrate of league and promotion.

Though, the level and skills of the players in the Divizia B are just below any level. They commit silly fouls all the time. Up to that point, we've managed to save our mistakes and use the others, but sooner or later it may be other way around, so I'm having quite a headache thiking about the possible formations.

Attacking wise, we missed some great chances, we can't afford to miss in harder games and in september, the hard work againist hard opponents will start. I had few injury problems during the month, but I'm not falling into traps.

It's rather suprising that Goga has started the season so good and not Codreanu who I'm excepting to be my next John O'Flynn. But again O'Flynn took some time to get himself scoring goals under me also.

Doran Gora Picture
Doran Goga is enjoying a great start to the season

retired_puly1364

28th of August 2005

Cyprus Journey

Phileleftheros

Okkas back for Switzerland and Barbados

Tursk made few changes due to the amount of injuries biting the Cyprus squad including GIannis Okkas back into the squad after he returned from injury.

One of the few suprises is that Kyriakos Pavlou is called up again and Nektarios Alexandrou has been handed his first call-up at 21-year old. There are more guys who are new under Tursk guidement, but those were also called up againist Faroe Islands.

Though a major problem for Tursk was the injury of his attacking midfielder Petros Filaniotis, who was voted as the best player on pitch by UEFA commitee againist Faroe Islands and the first choice goalkeeper Michalis Morfis is also struggling with long-term injury which he got againist Faroese.

"Kaiafas isn't fit for the first game, but he'll be ready in the Switzerland match. Againist Barbados I will play Ioannidis," said Tursk about the injury of Kostas Kaiafas.

"We will certainly want to win againist Barbados and we'll give our best againist the Switzerland," said Tursk ahead of his two games.

26-players called up for Barbados & Switzerland
Cyprus Squad

30th of August 2005

We suffered a injury as midfielder Giorgos Theodotou injuried himself just before travelling to Cyprus. He is replaced by third goalkeeper Tasos Giallouris from AEK.

3rd of September 2005 (Matchday)

Starting Line-Up
Bench: Kyriakos Pavlou (Foward), Giasemakis (F), Kostas Kaiafas (Midfielder), Nektarious Alexandrou (M), Giorgos Nikolau (F), Dimitris Daskalakis (Defender), Athos Chrysostomou (Goalkeeper), Lefteris Eleftheriou (M), Stelios Okkaridis (D)

Politis

Seven - nothing!

Cyprus again showed wonderful piece of football with a 7-0 victory over Barbados. Biggest in Cyprus history. Giasemakis and Michalis Konstantinou scored a double.

GSP stadium was 2/3 full during the amazing match, where the scoring was opened already 20 seconds into game by Michalis Konstantinou beatiful run away. And for the following 20 minutes, there was real gunfire under the Barbados goal.

By 18th minute, Cyprus was up 4:0 as Konstaninou added his second and Giannis Okkas and Alexis Garpozis hit the net also, after that the game went calm and the Barbados managed not to conceed more goals by half-time.

During half-time, Tursk made couple of changes including swaping Giasemakis in for Giannis Okkas, who had missed several chances.

During the second half, young Nektarious Alexandrou made his debut, though it was outshown, by another three goals. Twice it was Giasemakis who scored and Andreas Ioannidis scored his first goal for Cyprus.

"It was a great game and it's always very good to win with such big amount. Our self-belief is high and espescially the striker saw how good they are upfront, so we may end up converting few chances which we get againist big teams with a good pecent," said Tursk, who's first two games in charge got Cyprus fourteen goals and two conceeded.

"It's great to score couple of goals again and I hope I can win the friendly fight with the other strikers for the first team position, and even if I won't. I always hope to give my all," said Giasemakis.

Cyprus - Barbados 7:0
1., 18. Michalis Konstantinou, 11. Alexis Garpozis, 16. Giannis Okkas, 50. Andreas Ioannidis, 79., 90. Giasemakis

Player Statistics

retired_puly1364

6th of September 2005

Shmerini Online

Switzerland - test of abilities

Manager Tanel Tursk said ahead of the Switzerland game tomorrow, that it'll be a perfect test to see how good this squad really is.

"I think that seeing we have improved our results againist the sides like Faroese & Barbados, but we don't know how good we are compared to the teams that are fighting for the big competition places regulary," said Tursk.

"I hope we can come up with a suprise result and it'll be much better with Kaiafas back. If we can get the ball up-front, we've got strikers who can convert them with ease," he said.

"I'll do couple of changes, but nothing big," he said. It's highely likely that Kostas Kaiafas will rejoin the midfield and also Simos Krassas will be brought out.

"I believe we can have a great match and come out with a victory. We'll all give our best," said striker Giannis Okkas.

7th of September 2005 (Matchday)

Starting Line-Up

Bench: Kyriakos Pavlou (Foward), Giasemakis (F), Andreas Ioannidis (Midfielder), Nektarious Alexandrou (M), Giorgos Nikolau (F), Dimitris Daskalakis (Defender), Athos Chrysostomou (Goalkeeper)

FifaWorldCup.com

Amazing Cyprus destroys Switzerland!

Cyprus played one of the greatest games in the countries history. Leaving Switzerland no chance in the 4-1 victory.

Cyprus suprisingly started a heavy pressure from the start and lots of chances were ruined, until who else than countries start striker Michalis Konstantinou hit the net for Cyprus for the 20th time.

Swiss were struggling hard againist Cyprus side, which showed football the islanders had never seen. The GSP stadium was full house in hope for a win and it was certainly smelled to be coming. Espescially with Cyprus creating 5 super chances in the first half, hit the post and had two goals disallowed for offside.

For the second half, manager of the Cyprus side, Tanel Tursk, bringed in one of the newest hotshots striker Giasemakis on for Giannis Okkas, who had missed lots of chances and it was Giasemakis who made the difference.

In the 53rd minute, he was getting one on one with the Switzerland goalkeeper, until Philippe Senderos was forced to make a last man foul and get a red card for that. Just 4 minutes later, Giasemakis was celebrating a goal scored by himself.

And that was not the end of the party for either Cyprus or Giasemakis. In the 76th minute, you could've felt the feelings of the Cyprus fans and players after Giasemakis went crazy after scoring his second goal.

Eventhough, Switzerland hit back on one of the counter-attacks they had, it was still Giasemakis who had the final say, scoring a wonderful 4:1 goal and completing his hattrick after running through the Swiss defence, which was exactly like the cheese in the Alp country.

"Amazing! To score hattrick in so wonderful night, the best night of the Cyprus football ever. It feels great. We played with passion & love for our Cyprus," said the hero of the game, Giasemakis.

Though, there's no doubt, who is on the verge of becoming a national hero - Tanel Tursk had worked wonders with the Cyprus squad that even couldn't get a win againist Faroe Islands in the World Cup Qualifiers.

"I'm just as amazed as everyone else in the stadium. I checked the statistics at the end and those took a big smile on my face. 55 - 45 is the ball possesion and I think we had 20 shots comparing to the Swiss 10. Though, over 10 of our shots, were also chances, unlike Swiss who got 2-3 chances. The defence suprised me with a rock-like performance and midfielders controlled the game. All I'll say for now is that future is bright for Cyprus."

Cyprus 4:1 Switzerland
30. Michalis Konstantinou, 57., 76. 90. Giasemakis - 90. Benjamin Huggel
Sent Off: 53. Philippe Senderos (Switzerland)

Player Statistics

retired_puly1364

September 2005

U Cluj Monthly

Results:

10th of September - Divizia B3 - Week 4 - U Cluj 4:0 CFR Tim (34., 90. Dorin Goga, 51. Francisc Silaghi, 59. Tiberiu Beceru)

14th of September - Divizia B3 - Week 5 - M. Lupeni 0:2 U Cluj (75. Marius Popescu, 78. Cătălin Petrescu)

17th of September - Divizia B3 - Week 6 - U Cluj 3:0 Unirea (35. Dan Godreanu, 39. Marius Popescu, 47. Gabriel Giurgiu)

24th of September - Divizia B3 - Week 7 - U Cluj 2:0 Unirea Dej (42. Laurentiu Bus, 53. Dorin Goga)

League Table

"Brilliant month for U Cluj"

September was a great month for Univeristatea Cluj. We kept our net clean and scored 11 goals ourselves.

Eventhough, it in the end went brilliantly, I had few worries. Most annoying and nerve-wrecking was our bad start to the games. We owned the games from start to finish though, but it's like our players needed 35 minutes to get warm and find the net. We could've decide all the games in the first half, but we choosed to do that in the second, but one time we may run out of time.

More about games, only time we had few worries that we may conceed was againist Unirea Dej in the last game of the month, where we gave away a bit in the second half.

Though the other reason is obvious - injuries. There are couple of serious long-term injuries to handle.

Marius Popescu got injuried in the last game of the month and his experience may be missed. Also out is our first choice left-winger and the second goalkeeper.

I had lots of injuries with my goalkeepers. Sergei Lepmets sat out two last games and his replacement got injuried after first game and now my third goalkeeper played his probably only match of the season againist Unirea Dej.

Though, future looks bring not only with Cyprus...

Star:

Sergei Lepmets
Sergei Lepmets, eventhough played 2 matches, was one of the main reason why U Cluj conceeded 0

retired_lbherrera

Loving that start.

retired_puly1364

2nd of October 2005

Philelftheros

No suprises with the pick!

Manager Tanel Tursk announced his squad for games againist France and Ireland. It includes no big suprises, though few new mans are in.

One of the new guys is striker Athos Angeli, who previously already had few caps on his name and other one is midfielder Marios Themistokleous, who too has featured before.

"I'm builiding up the squad at the moment and looking for the first choice picks for the Euro 2008 qualifiers where we hope to cause some more upset," said Tursk about two new guys.

"During my time in charge, few guys have been given debuts and this trend will continue in future as I need to know can I cound on my back-ups. I'll try them out in friendlies and easier qualifiers."

"My scouts did a video of both of the players and I thouht they were worthy of chance. I'll see how they do on trainings after I arrive on Wednesday night."

"I'm surpised to hear that I'm called up. I'll hope to get a chance to show myself during the game also to the new manager," said Themistokleous.

"Ireland? I know they are stronger that Switzerland this time. We have to be aware of their great midfield, but hopefully we will get some chances ourselves too. It will be tough," said striker and captain Michalis Konstantinou.

26 players for Ireland and France games
Cyprus Squad

5th of October 2005

Giannis Okkas misses another game for Cyprus as he is ruled out with an injury. His place will be taken by left-back Charalabos Charalabous.

8th of October (Matchday)

Starting Line-Up
Bench: Kyriakos Pavlou (Striker), Athos Angeli (S), Andreas Ioannidis (Midfielder), Konstantinos Makridis (M), Giorgos Nikolaou (S), Dimitris Daskalakis (Defender), Antonios Giorgallidis (Goalkeeper)

Shmerini Online

Unlucky Cyprus loses to Ireland

Cyprus was having a bad time upfront againist Ireland and lost the game from Andy Reid free-kick 0:1. Though, manager was happy with the display.

The only goal of the night was scored in 22nd minute, when Andy Reid had a chance to score a free-kick from the edge of the area, an opportunity which he didn't leave unused.

The first half ended chance-wise quite even and to the second half, Cyprus came with much stronger game and "non-joking" approach. They played fast and created lots of chances, but out of all players, the star of the previous three games, managed to unuse three chances he was given in short amount of time and 24 000, had to say "oooh" every time he had the ball.

It was Tanel Tursk's first loss as manager of Cyprus, though he was happy with the display, "We created chances againist a team that is second in the group. It shows that we're on the right track and Euro 2008 qualifiers may turn out very interesting."

"I'm so unhappy that I failed to use so good chances my team-mates gave me. Espescially my second chance, where I was almost given a empty net ahead of me," said Giasemakis.

Cyprus will play it's next match againist France away in Paris.

Cyprus 0:1 Ireland
22. Andy Reid

Player Ratings

retired_puly1364

11th of October 2005

FifaWorldCup.com

Cyprus hoping to give France a battle

France has secured it's place in Germany for the summer 2006, but they still won't be going to face Cyprus with weakened team, as they want to minimise the risk of being punished by hard-working Cypriot team.

"We know how they have played lately and we've done some research. I'm impressed by the change of Cyprus after Tanel Tursk stepped in. They show beautiful football, though it'll give us more chances, and when it comes to finishing the chances, they don't have too big problems," said France manager Raymond Domenech.

"It's obvious that winning would be mission impossible againist France in their home, but we won't leave home without giving a battle and end our qualifying campaign with good mood," said Cyprus manager Tanel Tursk.

"I will play exactly the same squad as againist Ireland, since overally I was happy with the display," hinted Tursk at the tomorrow's choice for starters.

15th of October (Matchday)

Starting Line-Up]
Bench: Kyriakos Pavlou (Striker), Athos Angeli (S), Andreas Ioannidis (Midfielder), Konstantinos Makridis (M), Giorgos Nikolaou (S), Dimitris Daskalakis (Defender), Antonios Giorgallidis (Goalkeeper)

Own words

France didn't give us a chance. In the second half we fell to 10 man and it stopped the game. Can't whine due to the red card being for a last man foul by our central defender Nikos Nikolaou.

Though, what was positive that we managed to score the goal with our first chance of the game. Michalis Konstaninou's strike was brilliant and the curling shot found it's way to the top corner of France goal after a great pass by Ilias Charalabous.

I don't know what would've happened without the red card, though quite sure we would've still lost the game as France destroyed our hopes in the end of first half. In the second half Kyriakos Pavlou came close to his first goal for national team, but unfortunately, it found the hands of Fabien Barthez instead of the net.

For the november, I decided to arrange another friendly along with Wales one and we'll face Algeria at home. Both games should be very interesting.

France 4:1 Cyprus
6., 64. Sylvain Wiltord, 41. Patrice Evra, 45. Zinedine Zidane - 30. Michalis Konstaninou

Player Ratings

Final WCQ Group Standings

retired_puly1364

October 2005

U Cluj Monthly

Results:

1st of October - Divizia B3 - Week 8 - Bihor 2:1 U Cluj (53. Dorin Goga)

5th of October - Divizia B3 - Week 9 - UTA 0:3 U Cluj (2. Dorin Goga, 17., 38. Dan Codreanu)

15th of October - Divizia B3 - Week 10 - U Cluj 2:0 Sannicolau Mare (8. Bogdan Vlad, 43. Dorin Goga)

22nd of October - Divizia B3 - Week 11 - Armatura 0:3 U Cluj (18., 32. Dan Codreanu, 52. Dorin Goga)

26th of October - Divizia B3 - Week 12 - U Cluj 3:0 ISCT (2. Dorin Goga, 11. Bogdan Vlad, 73. Argyris Giangoudakis)

29th of October - Divizia B3 - Week 13 - Gaz Metan 1:2 U Cluj

League Table

"First loss, but gap has began to rise fast"

It was another great month for Cluj, eventhough in the very first day of the month, we had to taste the bitterness of the loss for the first time in this league season. It was againist no-one else than FC Bihor, one of the biggest rivals.

We finished that game with 10 man though and it was just matter of luck do we lose it or not as we had loads of chances in the second half.

After that match, everything went well and we continued our winning ways and meanwhile opponents, were all struggling to get 2 wins in a row, so by the end of the month we managed to make the gap very big.

The most controversial match was the one againist ISCT, where we got 3 penalties, but only converted one, by Argyris Giangoudakis.

As it can be seen, Dorin Goga is almost unstopable, but also Dan Codreanu finally starting to do something. After those games, there are 4 more games and we go on long break.

Star:
<A HREF="http://i39.photobucket.com/albums/e175/Tanel1991/dan_codreanu.jpg" TARGET=_blank>
Dan Codreanu</A>, found his goalscoring touch and gave loads of assists and finished as the player of the month award runner up

Bonus:
Video Of Cluj-Napoca
You better know where are you managing at...