Angelo Niculescu

Angelo Niculescu (1 October 1921 – 20 June 2015) was a Romanian football player and manager.[1][2][3] He was the coach of the Romania national football team during the 1970 FIFA World Cup. He is best remembered 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 known as tiki-taka.[4] With such tactics Romania qualified for a World Cup after more than 30 years and registered a win against Czechoslovakia.

Angelo Niculescu

Niculescu in 1970
Personal information
Full name	Angelo Niculescu
Date of birth	(1921-10-01)1 October 1921
Place of birth	Craiova, Romania
Date of death	20 June 2015(2015-06-20) (aged 93)
Place of death	Bucharest, Romania
Position(s)	Midfielder
Youth career
1937–1939	Rovine Grivița Craiova
Senior career*
Years	Team	Apps	(Gls)
1939–1944	FC Craiova
1945–1947	Carmen București
1947–1948	Ciocanul București	29	(1)
1948–1950	Dinamo București	33	(0)
Teams managed
1953	Dinamo București
1954	Dinamo București
1955–1957	Dinamo București
1958	Steaua București
1958–1959	Tractorul Brașov
1964–1965	Dinamo București
1965–1966	Dinamo București
1967–1972	Romania
1973–1977	Sportul Studențesc
1977–1979	Politehnica Timișoara
1979–1980	Dinamo București
1980–1981	SC Bacău
1981–1982	Universitatea Cluj
1983–1984	Oțelul Galați
* Senior club appearances and goals counted for the domestic league only