Marked for Mário Junior
From our football correspondent
Steady
Match7 Nov 2026
4‑0, and the margin flattered nobody — it could have carried another goal or two without complaint. Afternoons like this are why people keep coming.
Player ratings9 Nov 2026
Two goals and a mark of 8.40 to go with them. Strikers are judged on afternoons like this one and remembered for far fewer of them than people imagine.
Player ratings9 Nov 2026
2 goals, and the second was the one that settled it. Marked 8.18, and he could have had a third with better luck at the near post.
Squad9 Nov 2026
Words at FC Bihor Oradea training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Nikola Stevanović is at the centre of it, and the squad will now find out whether the standard rises or the pair of them simply stop speaking.
Squad9 Nov 2026
Ioan Filip in a row with a teammate
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at FC Bihor Oradea this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Match7 Nov 2026
2 goals inside twenty minutes with Alexandru Boiciuc in the middle of it, and FC Bacău unable to get near the ball long enough to change anything. Some matches are won before the first drink.
The dugout9 Nov 2026
The manager makes an example of Abel Popa
“If you cannot run for the shirt, somebody else will wear it.” No name was used and none was needed; every player in that room knew who it was for.
The dugout9 Nov 2026
The manager’s verdict
“I am not going to get carried away and I will not let them either. It was a good day. There will be harder ones.” Florin Puscas kept it short after the 4‑0 win, which is what managers do when they are happy.
The dugout9 Nov 2026
Something was said to Martin Lecolier and then it happened. In this industry that passes for remarkable, and the dressing room noticed faster than any supporter could.
Back issues
From our football correspondent
Crisis
Match31 Oct 2026
A 0‑3 beating by CS Tunari was the sort of result that empties a stadium long before the final whistle.
Squad2 Nov 2026
Nikola Stevanović was at the centre of it, and by the time it was pulled apart there were three or four others involved. Training grounds are small places and long seasons make them smaller.
The dugout2 Nov 2026
“I pick players who do the work. All of it.” No name was spoken; every camera still turned to Mário Junior, and the manager let it.
Boardroom2 Nov 2026
Wages swallow 109% of the FC Bihor Oradea income
Every club pays most of what it earns to its players. Paying nearly all of it is a different arrangement, and it has ended the same way every time it has been tried.
Boardroom2 Nov 2026
Nobody left the FC Bihor Oradea dressing room in a hurry
The door stayed shut a long time after the final whistle. What was said in there is between them; whether it worked is between them and Saturday.
The dugout2 Nov 2026
The view from the dugout
“We will look at it, we will learn from it, and we go again.” The three sentences every manager keeps for a 0‑3 defeat, delivered by Florin Puscas to a room that had heard them before.
Squad2 Nov 2026
The demotion a club never announces and a dressing room always notices. Paul-Henri Moussinga is further from the side than he was, and the reason will not be given until he asks.
Player ratings2 Nov 2026
There was no pressure on him and nowhere he had to be. FC Bihor Oradea lost a goal to a decision that took half a second and will be discussed all week.
The dugout2 Nov 2026
The manager has not finished forgetting Ioan Filip's mistake
Publicly it is behind everybody. It is not behind the man who picks the team, and the only place that shows is a team sheet. He will get another chance; he will get it in a match that matters less.
From our football correspondent
Steady
Match14 Oct 2026
FC Argeș are out and FC Bihor Oradea go through, 2‑1 the final word. The bracket opens up a little, and everyone allows themselves a look at it.
Match14 Oct 2026
There is no crueller way to lose a football match. FC Bihor Oradea scored in the 119th minute, the restart barely happened, and the away end was still standing when the whistle went.
Player ratings19 Oct 2026
2 goals, and the second was the one that settled it. Marked 8.37, and he could have had a third with better luck at the near post.
Player ratings19 Oct 2026
Successful dribbles: 23. He went past people as if he had been told there was a prize for it, and by the end the full-back had stopped pretending to try.
Player ratings19 Oct 2026
Martin Lecolier scored one and made one — 7.35
Two of the goals had his name somewhere on them, which is the afternoon a manager wants from anybody asked to both create and finish. 7.35, and 2 involvements.
Squad19 Oct 2026
Words at FC Bihor Oradea training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Nikola Stevanović is at the centre of it, and the squad will now find out whether the standard rises or the pair of them simply stop speaking.
Match17 Oct 2026
Beaten 1‑2, and beaten fairly. The manager kept his words short afterwards, which was probably wise.
Squad19 Oct 2026
Mário Junior and a teammate went at it, and not about football. Training grounds are small places and a long season makes them smaller.
The terraces19 Oct 2026
At 22 he is being sung about by people twice his age, which is an affection a signing has to earn over years and a local kid gets for turning up. It is also the hardest thing in football to live up to.
From our football correspondent
Upbeat
Squad12 Oct 2026
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Nikola Stevanović was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
Squad12 Oct 2026
Mário Junior and a teammate said things this week that will take longer than a week to unsay. It was not about football, and both of them play on Saturday.
The dugout12 Oct 2026
“Nobody here is above being told.” It was not said with a name attached, but the dressing room can count, and so can everybody who was listening.
Squad12 Oct 2026
The system has changed and his position has not. A footballer can improve his form; he cannot improve the manager’s formation, and that is the whole of the problem.
Market12 Oct 2026
“There is a gap, and pretending there is not helps nobody.” Neither side has moved, and the calendar is working for exactly one of them.
Market12 Oct 2026
Every press conference now starts and ends the same way: with Alexandru Boiciuc’s future. The manager has run out of new ways to say nothing.