The striker that makes the difference
Cristian Bud
Right after its comeback in the top flight, Gaz Metan Medias produced an excellent season, impressing with the surprising offensive approach and ability to lay siege on the struggling teams and generally during the games played at home, no matter the opponent’s name and stature. It was the debut season in Liga I for a number of players and coach Cristian Pustai showed guts to give credit to several young and unexperienced footballers at this level. Among them, Cristi Bud, a centre-forward who had a good reputation in the second division and who made an instant impact, making good use of balls supplied from midfield especially by Brazilian attacking midfielder Eric de Oliveira and left winger Paul Parvulescu – definitely the most promising left sided player in Romania.
The current season started well and Medias had every reason to hope for a safe year. Bud’s sale in autumn and CFR’s decision to leave him under Pustai’s guide until the winter deceived everyone, as Gaz Metan found themselves in a mess in 2010. They’ve notched just one win and have failed to score in the last 6 (six) games, having every reason to think of the worst as the season draws to an end. Still, they’re above the relegation zone, thanks to Pustai’s ability to organize the defense, not just the attack. With the likes of Litu, Silvasan and the Greek gamble called Vasilios Galanis, Gaz Metan fails even to pose a threat, a complete forward like Bud – vital for the attacking maneuver even when he doesn’t score – being hard to find these days. But Gaz Metan’s loss is CFR’s winning move, with the 25 years old getting more and more time on the pitch, in spite of the tough competition for a place in the team, considering that, at the moment, he’s keeping on the bench a certain Lacina Traore, followed closely by Arsenal, Udinese and Galatasaray!
Bud already scored two goals for the league leaders, the last one a match winner, away, against FC Brasov, and he might just be the player that seals the fate of two teams with different goals this season…
Scouting Romania 
I’d have added Curtean who was the MVP for Medias when he played 😉
btw. Gangioveanu showed more than Parvulescu so far imho.
I agree with both options, but Curtean, unfortunately, showed that he lacks the mentality to make it in a big club, while Gangioveanu is a bit too inconsistent at the moment. But, yes, the talent is there. I’d like to see some brains as well, though 🙂
Curtean needs a bit of freedom and Sabau’s tactic doesn’t really favor his style of play although I agree that it’s still basicly his fault. If he can’t adapt to Timisoara then he won’t be able to do that in Western Europe either.
Gangio was basicly out for half the season but scored regularly for the youth-nt and receives more faith from Wotte lately. 😉
Parvulescu kind of faded away just like the rest of Medias this season as they focus too much on defending nowadays.