Poli Iasi - Poli 2:1 (1:0)

And here we go again. Terrible first half, several blunders by Uhrin in the first eleven and another gifted goal in the second half, lead to a new defeat at the hands of a relegation battler.

With the horrendous Aliuta on pitch from the match debut, with Ratiu in defense and McKain as defensive midfielder, there is little else that could have gone worse for Poli. The home side scored in the 10th minute, when Balba got free of the central defenders, dribbled Popa and finished rather easily. And then...well, not much happened until the half time whistle, as Iasi defended and Poli did nothing. With Torje on the pitch in the second half, things were going much much better, and the white violets equalized 52nd minute after a flowing move which was initiated by the young U21 international, then went via Arman Karamyan to Gigel Bucur, who beautifully advanced with the ball and then crossed to Rusic, who only had to push the ball over the line. Good things seem to last only for a short while nowadays in Poli's case, as the home side went ahead once more after a free-kick found Kalai unbelievably unchallenged a few meters away from goal - and you can imagine the rest of this chapter. Bucur then had a huge chance, but he didn't manage to convert a one-on-one with Branet and Rusic's and Torje's shots both went close to goal, but not close enough. The final minutes found the white-violets defending, so as to conclude another lousy, lousy afternoon.

Uhrin's mistakes aside, the team played very poorly in the first half, even for its latest standards. Arman Karamyan didn't quite complement his brother's absence, but he did decently, while Rusic's goal and some good passes by him saved his skin. But Abiodun's error at the second goal and McKain's poor performance in midfield cost the team dearly.

Sometimes, one can only hope things will be better one day - and this is exactly the case.

Poli: Popa (5) - Latovlevici (5), Ratiu (5), Canu (5,5), Stancu (5) - Arman Karamyan (5,5), Aliuta (4), McKain (5), Abiodun (4,5) - Bucur (6), Rusic (6) with Torje (6) and Cristea coming on for Aliuta and Latovlevici.

Today's goals here.

Next match: at home against leaders CFR Cluj, Sunday the 16th if I'm not mistaken.