Angelo Niculescu (1 October 1921 – 20 June 2015) was a Romanianfootball player and manager. He is best remembered in Romania for being the national team's coach at the 1970 World Cup and for inventing the "temporizare" ("delaying") tactics in which the team keeps the possession of the ball inside its own half and the players are using many short passes from one side to another of the field in order to disrupt the opponents patience when they go out of their field to make pressing, this is also considered an early form of tiki-taka, with such tactics he managed to qualify Romania to a World Cup after more than 30 years and register a win against Czechoslovakia.[2][3][4][5]
"He was an innovator of football. A fair guy, severe enough, a man of justice. The most important thing was that he formed people. Valuable people of Romanian football."
– Mircea Sandu, former Sportul Studențesc București player talking about Angelo Niculescu[2]
First and second spell at Dinamo
Angelo Niculescu started coaching in 1952 at Dinamo București's junior center, after one year moving to be the head coach of the senior squad which he helped win the first Divizia A title in the clubs history in 1955, also reaching the 1954 Cupa României final which was lost by Dinamo with 2–0 in front of Metalul Reșița and led the team in the first European match of a Romanian team in the 1956–57 European Cup in the 3–1 victory against Galatasaray, helping The Red Dogs go to the next phase of the competition where they were eliminated by CDNA Sofia.[6][7][8][9][10][11][12][13][16][17][18] He left Dinamo in 1957 but after two short experiences at Steaua București and Tractorul Brașov, he returned at Dinamo in 1964, helping the club win another Divizia A title in the 1964–65 season, also he has a total of 16 matches led in European competitions, all with The Red Dogs consisting of 10 victories and 6 losses.[6][7][8][9][10][11][12][13][16][19] One of his most important European victories was the historical 2–1 over Helenio Herrera's Inter Milan from the 1965–66 European Cup edition, the Italians being winners of the previous two seasons of the competition, saying after the game:"I am happy that Herrera's "concrete" was broken by the movement on the field of our players. With fair refereeing we would have won even more clearly".[20] However, they lost the second leg with 2–0.[20]
In 1973, Angelo Niculescu went to coach Sportul Studențesc București until 1977, then he went to coach for two years Politehnica Timișoara where in the 1977–78 season he was close to win the championship as the team was leading with three rounds before the end of the season but after a loss with 4–2 in front of Dinamo, they ended the championship on the 3rd position with three points behind champions, Steaua.[6][7][8][9][10][11][12][13]
For representing his country at the 1970 World Cup, Niculescu was decorated by President of RomaniaTraian Băsescu on 25 March 2008 with the Ordinul "Meritul Sportiv" – (The Medal "The Sportive Merit") class III.[25]
Innovative tactic
He is known in Romania for inventing the "temporizare" ("delaying") tactics in which the team keeps the possession of the ball inside its own half and the players are using many short passes from one side to another of the field in order to disrupt the opponents patience when they go out of their field to make pressing, this is also considered an early form of tiki-taka, with such tactics he managed to qualify Romania to a World Cup after more than 30 years and register a win against Czechoslovakia.[4][5][6][7][8][9][10][11][12][13] In 2011 FIFA named Niculescu the inventor of the tiki-taka style of play and so did UEFA in 2014.[9][12][26][27][28]
Writing
Angelo Niculescu started writing chronicles, comments and match analysis in 1958 as a journalist for the "Sportul popular" newspaper.[6] He also wrote two volumes about football:[4][5][6][8][13][29]
Fotbal. Metode si mijloace de antrenament (Football. Training methods and means) - co-written with Ion V. Ionescu (1972)
Corabia cu 11 pasageri (The ship with 11 passengers) (1974)
Personal life
He had four brothers and one of them, Jean Niculescu was a footballer at Olympia București.[11][12] Angelo Niculescu died on 20 June 2015 in his apartment from Bucharest and was buried at the Ghencea Military Cemetery.[30] The president of FIFA, Joseph Blatter said: "Please accept my condolences for the passing of former player and coach Angelo Niculescu. He will be remembered for his contribution to Romanian football, especially as the inventor of the tiki-taka style of play."[2][4][5][8][9][10][13][26][31][32]
