The AFC Champions League is completely lost——
The Chinese Super League team still has a slight gain at the start of the fiasco
This past weekend, the "14+7" quarantine of the national football team and the U23 national football team at the Mission Hills Base in Haikou ended, but the holiday they were looking forward to was not long: the club has concentrated on preparing for the league. Excluding uncertain factors, international players at all levels will have to return to the team with at most one week of rest.
The national football team has no competition tasks this year, and the head coach Li Xiaopeng remains to be "organized to decide". The U23 national football team has the task of the Hangzhou Asian Games. At present, three overage players Zhang Linpeng, Wu Xi, and Zhang Yuning have been training with the team. The head coach Yanke Vicchi's plan also includes gathering for the "East Asia Cup" held in Japan in early July. Since the Chinese Super League will start in mid-May at the earliest, the U23's preparation rhythm is not easy.
The 2022 season of Chinese football is destined to be difficult, and the U23 national football team has to shoulder the two important tasks of "competing for face" and "boosting morale": the East Asian Cup and the Asian Games are one month apart. The dark cloud of returning from the game, the next cycle of the Paris Olympics and the World Cup in the United States, Canada and Mexico, the life of Chinese football will be relatively easy.
As the first big show in the spring of this season, the AFC Champions League group stage has just entered the final stage (as of April 25, the 6 rounds of the group stage have been over for 4 rounds), Shandong Taishan in Group F and Guangzhou in Group I are these two teams. The number of goals scored by the Chinese Super League teams is "horrible" (Shandong Taishan has 1 draw and 3 losses with a goal difference of -12, and Guangzhou has a 4-game losing streak with a goal difference of -21, ranking second to last and first in East Asia) - should be first Changchun Yatai, who participated in the play-offs, and Shanghai Haigang, who were in Group J, have officially announced their retirement before the start of the match. Therefore, although there are still two rounds of the group stage, fans can already use the "worst in history" to describe the Chinese Super League this season. The team's AFC Champions League journey.
In view of the epidemic prevention policies of various regions, this season's AFC Champions League group stage is still divided into two round-robin format. In the East Asia region, the group stage of Shandong Taishan is Buriram, Thailand, and the venue of Guangzhou's group stage is Johor Bahru, Malaysia. "For the two teams participating in the youth army, the purpose of this expedition is to "exercise", there is no pressure to "qualify from the group", but the start is not stable, and there is no preparation for the "AFC Champions League" at all, which leads to the disillusionment of the army. , rout out of control.
Taking Guangzhou team as an example, they lost 0:5 to Johor DT, 0:8 to Kawasaki Frontale, 0:3 to Ulsan Hyundai, and 0:5 to Ulsan Hyundai again. The "clean" 4-game losing streak became the first team in East Asia. The missed teams made domestic fans emotional: in the 2013 and 2015 seasons, the booming Guangzhou Evergrande won the AFC Champions League twice, which not only whetted the appetite of fans, but also provided a "feasible" plan for the next cycle of "naturalization". Even in the 2019 season, the team still reached the top 4 of the AFC Champions League and showed a stable state, but since the group fell into a "financial crisis" in 2020, the Guangzhou team fell to the throne in an instant, the naturalized players left one after another, and the operating expenses of the first team fell off a cliff. Whether the team can complete the Chinese Super League this season as a whole is the real issue that Guangzhou fans are worried about.
In the last two seasons when the ship of "Chinese football" has been slowing down, the hardships that clubs need to go through are already doomed. Only the "traditional giants" with solid foundations have the greatest ability to resist risks.
Compared with the Guangzhou team in the "Eye of the Storm", although the Shandong Taishan Youth Army also started with a fiasco, but after adapting to the rhythm of the AFC Champions League, the team played two consecutive group matches at a normal level, thanks to "stability" Mentality: In the first game of a 0:7 loss to Daegu, the whole team had no "professional athlete" style. In the second game, they lost 0:5 to the Urawa Red Diamonds. The team's appearance has changed. The Lion City Mariners won the first point in the AFC Champions League and lost the Lion City Mariners at 2:3 in the morning (Beijing time) today. The resilience displayed by the Shandong youth team is already a training indicator for young players in the AFC Champions League - especially worth mentioning. In the 84th minute of the game, the 19-year-old Liu Guobao made a successful shot in the penalty area of the Lion City Mariners by relying on smooth transitional movements. Such a masterpiece is rare in China.
According to the schedule, Shandong Luneng, who has recovered from his recovery, will fight Daegu and Urawa Red Diamonds again this week. The "win or lose" results of these two tough battles are of little significance, but for the growth of young players, "leveling" The role is self-evident.
Therefore, the fiasco at the beginning does not mean that Chinese football's journey to the AFC Champions League is useless. At least relying on the stable domestic youth training system, Shandong Luneng's youth army gradually shows the actual combat ability that matches its ability - not comparable to the strong Asian teams. Comparable but compared with the second-tier teams in Asia, the gap is at a level that can be compensated. Combined with the U23 national football performance that also played "normally" in the previous "Dubai Cup", although the Chinese football system cannot stand scrutiny, the young players' "Asian second-class" competition The strength has not been lost, and optimistic Chinese fans have reasons to continue to wait and see the next Asian Games and Olympic qualifiers.
This newspaper, Beijing, April 25th
China Youth Daily, China Youth Daily reporter Guo Jian Source: China Youth Daily