The Cup repeated the championship: Steaua vs Dinamo at the final, the Army prevailed by one goal in the last minute. Lacatus gave them the lead in the 27th minute. Dinamo equalized 3 minutes before the last whistle, courtesy of Raducioiu, but Balint still made it 2-1 Steaua in the 90th minute. Wait a minute… there was no 90th minute… or was it? The game stopped earlier. Television broadcast went black. Steaua decided to walk away. The final was forfeit. The reason for all that? Steaua scored second goal in the 87th minute, which was disallowed by the referee. The match ended at this point and Dinamo’s players took the Cup with themselves. Or may be they kidnapped the Cup? The match was never finished, contrary to the false record of Balint scoring in the 90th minute. The game and the Cup was awarded to Steaua later by the Federation and the referee was disqualified for one year. Speaking of political clashes behind the scene…
This is a possible photo of 1987-88 Dinamo (Bucharest). Full of great talent and backed up by ominous state power they failed twice this season, thus repeating 1986-87. Lost by tiny margin both championship and Cup, lost in the last minute. That was unfortunate, but then again… was it just football?
Possible photo of the 1987-88 Cup winners. Strangely both Steaua and Dinamo left almost no pictorial records of 1987-88 – true, the teams were pretty much the same as the previous and the next year. May be most people were happy seeing Steaua winning and Securitate’s pets two years in a row second in every tournament. May be… because it is hard to sympathize with not just Army’s club, but already a pet project of the son of ominous Ceausescu. Who depended on Securitate… For all the records, for all the talent of coaches and players, there is more than a grain of salt: were these two rivals really all that strong and great? How much was fixed in the backrooms? What kind of games were played behind the scene? Of course, if one is Steaua fan nothing but victory matters and that is the only truth and justice. And when it comes to just that, Steaua won its 16th Cup and another double. When the dust settles down, it is a somewhat curious record: Steaua so far won more Cups than titles.
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