A torrential downpour at 7.00 didn’t dampen the ardour of the over 3,500 crowd who were treated to an exhibition of football the likes of which they won’t have seen for quite some time, certainly not in the SPL. 10 double decker loads of East European students, fruit picking in Longforgan and Blairgowrie arrived to give some vociferous backing for the Romanian side.
A floodlight failure threatened to halt the proceedings, but the lights came on in time for the kick off, to the relief of all.
Dundee lined up with rookie Derek Soutar in goal; a back 4 of Dave Mackay, Lee Wilkie, Barry Smith and Marcello Marocco; in midfield we had Mark Robertson, Gavin Rae and Giorgi Nemsadze; JD stuck with a 3 man attack, consisiting of Fab Cab, Stevie Milne and Juan Sara. On the bench were Jamie Langfield, Gavin Beith, Steven Robb, Lee Mair, Nacho Novo, Chris Brash and Callum McDonald.
The game began with Dundee looking lively with a Fabian Caballero through ball not too far from sending Milne in on goal.
A Gavin Rae run down the left and a Robertson corner which Lee Wilkie heads down but finds no takers were among the early highlights.
Cabarello is looking much more like his old self and when Milne links up with him the Argentinian goes on a jinky run ending with a cut back that is almost met by Sara.
A neat Robertson pass to Sara sees big Juan clearly held down by his opponent but the ref gives nothing and Juan’s header goes just over the bar.
Caballero has a great run and cross which finds no takers.
Rapid then have a strong spell and begin to play the football guys like Dundee Tul Eh Deh said they would in his Romanian report. 3 corners in succession are barely cleared and the Eastern European side are suddenly drawing applause for their fine play.
Dundee reply in kind and a 5 man passing move ends with Giorgi’s forward pass just too strong for Dave Mackay.
Giorgi Nemsadze fires a free kick well wide of goal in the 15th minute.
A silly foul by Lee Wilkie gives Rapid a free kick on the left and from that MANUEL GORKROID heads a wonderful goal to give Rapid a lead that at that point they barely deserved.
Caballero is continuing to look sharp and seemed much fitter and committed than I’ve seen him for some time. His skills are amazing and he sends a scorching free kick over the bar by the narrowest of margins with the keeper well beaten.
Cab to Sara and his hooked pass over his shoulder picks out Rae whose left foot rocket looks like ending up inside the post but is cleared by an outstretched leg as Dundee almost snatch the equaliser.
Milne came close not long after, but Dundee are finding it hard to break down this well organised Rapid defence.
But Rapid are settling and anyone who says divine football can’t be played on a slippery wet surface with the rain bucketing down should have been at this game. Their running off the ball was amazing, their quick passing movements and 1-2’s silenced the Dundee crowd and it was becoming evident that this was no SPL standard team, not by any means.
Caballero finds Sara who can’t keep his shot down and it soars over the bar.
Then in the 40th minute a goal of the very highest quality for the visitors. This goal would have graced the Roy of the Rovers comics I loved as a bairn. A 5 man passing move, with players running into space, touching it on and continuing their run left Dundee reeling and though Soutar gets his hand to the ball it trundles under his body for a quite magnificent second goal. The goalscorer was number 17, whose name sounded like MARIUS MALDARASANA. (apologies again for the spelling).
Two minutes later Rapid hit the crossbar with a stunning free kick from an almost impossible angle to score from. The half time whistle arrives none too soon for Dundee who are being given a roasting after a bright start.
The possession football of Rapid Bucharest had been a treat to watch, if only it hadn’t been against MY team I might have appreciated it much more.
SECOND HALF
Dundee began fairly brightly, a Caballero pass giving Robertson a half chance but he shot well over the bar from the edge of the box.
In the 53rd minute Rapid increased their lead and effectively killed any hopes Dundee had of a fight back and once again it was that guy whose name I got wrong, but sounded like MARIUS MALDARASANA. Soutar made an excellent save from point blank range but Marocco is slow to react as the number 17 fired home the rebound to make it 3-0.
It was like men against boys and the boo boys in the Bobby Cox stand began to surface as we were at times treated to an exhibition of classy football, brilliant possession play and superb passing. And this in attrocious playing conditions.
In the 57th minute great play by Giorgi Nemsadze ends with a cross to the far post that Milne heads just over when he should have done better.
Dundee’s first actual shot on target came in the 64th minute when Caballero forced the keeper to actually catch the ball.
The tiring Caballero came off to a great ovation from the Dundee fans, he was perhaps our most creative performer on the night. Steven Robb replaced him, with Gavin Beith replacing Gavin Rae shortly afterwards.
Mark Robertson had a good shot that went straight at the keeper and we were at least beginning to get shots of some sort on target.
Young Gavin Beith looked confident on the ball and showed some excellent touches at times.
Mark Robertson had another shot blocked by a defender just when it looked like it might have beaten the keeper.
A bit of light relief came when a corner was awarded to Rapid and a wag in the Bobby Cox shouted "Lee Wilkie, get back on the effin drink." It didn’t amuse Lee but quite a few other Dees players had a wee smile on their face at this one.
With 10 minutes to go Chris Brash replaced Giorgi Nemsadze who had been another good performer for Dundee and at the same time big Callum McDonald came on for Barry Smith. Two minutes later Lee Mair came on for Lee Wilkie.
4 minutes to go and Derek Soutar made a superb one handed save that gained him a well deserved round of applause from the fans.
Then with 2 minutes left on the clock Dundee get a consolation goal and it’s down to some great work by young Steven Robb who makes a great run forward into space before calmly rolling the ball in front of STEVIE MILNE whose shot finds the corner of the net to make the final score 3-1 to Rapid.
SUMMING UP: Judging by some comments made by Dundee fans leaving the ground, on the basis of two home friendlies against quality sides, we are in for a relegation battle for the rest of this season. I didn’t see it that way. This was a brilliant Rapid side. Granted Dundee weren’t getting involved in hot-blooded tackles with the opening league coming in 4 days time. Had we done so I doubt if the result would have been affected much though we might have had a few injuries before Saturday.
Rapid were a joy to behold, they really were, though as I said, I wish I could have watched them tear someone else apart and admire them more fully. They were given warm applause by the Dees fans and overall the game was played in a friendly spirit.
The pluses for Jim Duffy in these games that don’t matter one bit, was that he has given a good few youngsters their debuts, blooded them against good teams with the knowledge that in the important matches to come they will at least have had time on the park for the first team. Kids who weren’t even allowed to train alongside Sara, Cab and Nemsadze have now played alongside them and the barriers have been broken. That can’t be a bad thing.
The players who impressed me tonight were: DEREK SOUTAR; his first game in the top team, he did alright, a wee bit nervous looking, but who wouldn’t be? Some good saves, a couple of decent catches at dangerous cross balls. He will have grown up a bit more tonight. DAVE MACKAY; carrying on from playing several games under Ivano last season he is perhaps a more experienced campaigner than a lot of the other kids, and he looked good again tonight. GIORGI NEMSADZE; looked good and every game he plays he seems closer to reaching the full match fitness he will need for the hard campaign ahead. He was the organiser tonight, Barry might be Captain in name, but the players seemed to know Giorgi was the main man when it came to sorting them out. FABIAN CABALLERO; the best Dee on the park tonight. He looked to have gotten some of his old enthusiasm back, was sharp, even beating opponents to the ball on several occasions. His use of the ball and his eagerness to have a shot when the opportunity arose suggested to me the man’s closer to his best than I’ve seen for some time. This is good news. JUAN SARA; Won a lot of balls in the air and it was noticeable before the game that Jim Duffy was working with him on heading the ball. Reasonable link up between him and Fabian. GAVIN BEITH; When he came on he showed neat touches and a maturity about him that suggests this kid will feature heavily in the season ahead. STEVEN ROBB; another kid who has the confidence of youth and the flair of champions to make it big in the game. His composure and the way he set up our consolation goal was a joy to behold.
So it’s roll on Saturday. I don’t hold the pessimistic views of some Dundee fans. JD has persisted in playing 3 up front and I hope he does so against Hearts. He rested Novo tonight, so he will be more than fresh for the Hearts game where I expect to see him a real thorn in their side. He has played his entire pool of players in a very hard pre-season fixture of 6 games, with only one against a Scottish side. We won only 1 game of the 6. So what? It’s what happens from now on that counts, and I’m for a home win on Saturday