Close, but very far

Eliminated from EURO 2024, the national team returns home riding a huge wave of sympathy. The tens of thousands of people present in Germany and the millions in the country showed that they have an immense desire to believe in something, to be happy, to be proud of their country. This must now be the main concern of the players, coaches and officials in the phenomenon, not to disappoint and not to waste this huge capital.

Beyond the emotions, in the cold, we have to admit that the tournament was above the initial expectations, despite the errors made by those who decide in the area and the chronic problems that domestic football has.

Emotionally we lived with the impression that we were close to a great performance, realistically, the distance was very big.

EURO 2024 proves as far as we are concerned that we have a huge problem with the selection base. Arriving at such a competition without a genuine left-back and not having a decent back-up for the position, where he has improvised relatively well with Bancu, is a problem that sooner or later was going to be taxed. Read between the lines, Koeman's statement after the round of 16 match, clearly says that we tried to carry water with a full flank, and they could not help speculating about the huge problems in our defence. They did and it could have been a lot worse scoring wise. Nobody disputes the dedication of the players, but if we want to get higher from a strictly footballing point of view, we have to add something. It's not the first match in which coach Iordănescu made a mistake and we don't have to hide that. The team excited against Ukraine, took steps backwards against Belgium, handled the match against Slovakia correctly and collapsed against the Netherlands. Could it be more? Easy to say after. Sympathy is one thing, reality is another. Probably Iordănescu will decide to leave, it also depends a lot on the leadership of the Romanian Football Federation how he will manage the moment, but here too there is a signal that must be taken into account. There is a base on which to build, but a lot of changes are needed, we are back to a major competition, but we are still very far from big football.