ACS Rapid CFR Suceava

ACS Rapid CFR Suceava

Full name	Asociaţia Club Sportiv Rapid CFR Suceava
Nickname(s)	Feroviarii (The Railwaymen)
Founded	1946
Ground	Stadionul Areni
Ground Capacity	12,500
Owner	Costel Bujoreanu Ionuş Boghiu
Chairman	Gabriel Clim
Manager	Bogdan Tudoreanu
League	Liga II
2013–14	Liga II, Seria I, 10th
Website	Club home page
Home colours Away colours

Rapid CFR Suceava is a professional football club from Romania, based in Suceava and founded in 1946 as Locomotiva Ițcani. Previously, the club changed its name to A.S. C.F.R. Ițcani as well.

They currently play in the Liga II, Seria I in the 2014-15 season after finishing on the 10th place in the same competition, at the end of the 2013-2014 season.

History

Rapid Suceava was founded to continue the football tradition in the city of Suceava after the dissolution of FC Cetatea Suceava, CSM Suceava (Bucovina Suceava) and Foresta Suceava. In the 2011-2012 season the club managed to win Liga III and as such to gain promotion to Liga II. Thus, since the 2011-2012 season A.C.S. C.F.R. Rapid Suceava plays in Liga II, the second tier of the Romanian football system.

Rapid started the 2014-2015 Liga II season with exceptional results in the first 5 matches, being able of emerging victorious 3 times and also managing to draw twice, thus at the end of September they topped the Seria I of Liga II on the first places. The most notable performance from those fixtures was the home match against AFC Săgeata Năvodari, a club which previously played in Liga I for the very first time in its history during the 2013-2014 season, when Rapid got twice leaded by their opponents but managed each time to score the equalizers. Mircea Negru and Marius Matei managed to score the goals for Rapid in that respective match.^[1] Another remarkable play took place during the 5th fixture of the second tier when Rapid encountered CS Balotești. Rapid was leaded 1-0 until the 88th minute, but only to ultimately turn the tables over CS Balotești in the last minutes with two goals scored by Cătălin Golofca and Sascha Marinkovic. Along with this win, Rapid ascended to the second place in Seria I of Liga II with 11 points after 5 matches.^[2]

In the 2014-2015 season the club additionally managed to qualify in the Round of 16 of the domestic cup competition Cupa României following a 1-0 win over Liga I side Gaz Metan Mediaș in the Round of 32 on September 23, 2014.^[3][4] After the Round of 32, Rapid Suceava alongside Dacia Mioveni were the only two football clubs from the second division to qualify in the next phase after both having managed to obtain their qualifications from blowout results with teams higher rated than them from the first tier. Nonetheless, beforehand defeating Gaz Metan Mediaș, Rapid did also win two other domestic cup matches against Liga III sides CS Știința Miroslava (3-0) and FC Cetatea Târgu Neamț (1-0), both away, which made the club obtain a flawless performance with 7 consecutive positive results in both competitions.

Colours & badge

Rapid Suceava uses a similar home kit with that of CFR Cluj. Both home and away the play wearing a white-burgundy kit.

Stadium

Rapid Suceava plays its home matches on the Areni Stadium which they also share with Sporting Suceava. The stadium has a total capacity of 12,500 seats and was opened in 1963 as the Municipal Stadium. Additionally, the stadium was also renovated between 1976-1977, 1980-1982 and 2002. It is currently ranked 31st in the all time ranking table of stadiums from Romania.^[5]

Supporters

The ultras of Rapid Suceava are organized under the name of "Cavalerii Nordului" (The Northern Knights or The Knights of the North in translation).

Honours

Liga IV:

• Winners (1): 2007-08

Liga III:

• Winners (1): 2011–12

Current squad

Note: Flags indicate national team as defined under FIFA eligibility rules. Players may hold more than one non-FIFA nationality.

No. Position Player 86 GK Andrei Roheţki 85 GK Cătălin Pascal GK Toma Niga 17 MF Dragoș Sfrijan DF Andrei Fedorovici 16 DF Ionuț Sava 18 DF Claudiu Velescu 11 DF Dorin Semeghin (Captain) 13 DF Cristian Spătar 22 DF George Apostol 6 DF Constantin Ferariu

No. Position Player 2 DF Daniel Bălan (Vice-captain) 10 MF Ciprian Sumanariu MF Adrian Gheorghiciuc 15 MF Răzvan Bîgu MF Marius Onciu MF Cezar Bosânceanu 8 MF Florin Burcea 9 FW Mircea Negru (Vice-captain) 20 FW Cătălin Golofca FW Adrian Vornicu FW Alexandru Buziuc FW Sascha Marinkovic

Foreign players

Coaching staff

Name	Nationality	Function
Bogdan Tudoreanu	Romania	Head coach
Mihai Guriță	Romania	Assistant manager
Laurențiu Andrieș	Romania	Assistant manager
Neculai Grosu	Romania	Competition organizer
Pepe Armeanca	Romania	Masseur
Constantin Bosânceanu	Romania	Masseur
Edgar Schachter	Romania	Club doctor MD

Management

Staff member	Nationality	Position
Costel Bujoreanu	Romania	Owner
Ionuș Boghiu	Romania	Owner
Gabriel Clim	Romania	President
Dumitru Moldovan	Romania	Executive director
Mihai Pilat	Romania	Sporting director

External links

• Rapid's page at frf.ro
• Rapid's page at liga2.ro
• Rapid's page at campionate.ro
• Rapid CFR Suceava (official website)
• Facebook page
• Rapid a incheiat campania de transferari (Romanian)
• Rapidistii vor intra pe gazonul de pe Areni odata cu adversarii din prima etapa (Romanian)

References