Scouting Romania

It’s the first official match in 2010 and I was thinking about avoiding it, until I saw the strange odds. Under 1.6 for a home victory means that the bookies got it wrong, at least in my eyes.

These two teams will fight for survival until the last round, the odds for such a game shouldn’t be under 1.9 for the home team. Now some more facts:

• Otelul will allow free entrance on the stadium, but the game will be played on Friday, starting 13.00 CET, when everyone is either in school or at work;
• Otelul lost during the mercato period regular keeper Kolev, regular and the best central defender Jelev (now at Steaua), but didn’t manage to get in exchange established players;
• Otelul will also miss team captain Paraschiv, which will seriously damage the build up;
• The home team looked mediocre throughout the first half of season, with coach Dorinel Munteanu struggling to create a team out of mostly young, unexperienced and unknown players.
• On the other hand, the newly promoted International lacks experience, but has a more interesting roster (with talented youngsters like Viera, Radut and Chiriches), a more calm environment (no financial worries) and a new coach, the promising Ionut Badea, who took over during the winter break.
• The guests are also a dangerous team away from home, with four wins in the first half of season (including one against Dinamo!), although they should have tried to improve in attack, where they’re a bit short in numbers and quality.

Definitely, not a game that has home win written all over, as the odds are suggesting, so those who are looking for value bets could include this one on their list.