From Scotland to Romania in 432 Words

Hello and welcome back to the Romania World Cup Blog. It’s been a little while since the last update here, and I wanted to post quickly tonight and let you know what was going on, introduce myself, and tell the short version of the story of why I will be your new Romanian National Team blogger.

My name’s Ian, and I blog regularly for the Scotland NT’s World Cup Blog, which I will be continuing to do. As a lifelong Scotland fan, I bleed blue and white, into the shape of a perfect St. Andrew’s Cross, and that’s not changing anytime soon. I also blog about the Scottish Premier League for our sister site, The Offside, and host the weekly podcast on that site as well.

So, why am I now blogging about Romania? There are a couple of reasons. First, I’ll put my cards on the table here … nobody else is doing it. I say now, and I will stick by this statement: If someone comes along more dedicated to the Romanian National Team, who I think can do a better job of covering them, I will happily step aside. Secondly, I’ve been hugely impressed with Romania, not only in their sweeping Euro 2008 qualifying campaign, but before that as well. It’s a team that deserves to be covered and covered well on the World Cup Blog. Third, two words … Euro … 2008. Okay, I guess one of those was a number. The tournament is just now coming into focus, but in a few months, we’ll be in full-on pre-tournament frenzy, and Romania, as a member of the group of death, should be represented here.

Then there’s also a personal reason. In addition to being a fan of Scotland as a national team, my favorite club in the world is one you may or may not have heard of, Inverness Caledonian Thistle Football Club in Scotland. Caley Thistle for short. Anyway, my beloved Caley Thistle signed Marius Niculae, the first Romanian player in the history of the Scottish top flight, this summer, and Niculae has recently earned a call-up to the national squad to face Russia this coming week. That was the final step in my journey to supporting Romania.

So here we are. Over the next few days, I’ll do my best to get everyone up to speed on all things Romanian NT, leading up to the big friendly on March 26th with Russia, which should provide a nice look at the form of both sides on their way to Euro 2008. Stay tuned, and welcome back.