Four-way battle for CSL 2008 run-in
Thursday, 30th October 2008 ~ Cameron ~ Link ~ Comments (0)
Shenhua players celebrate their 3-2 comeback against Guangzhou
Certainly, anything is possible in the last six games to decide the destiny of the championship. To illustrate this, the past two weeks saw form side Shenhua overhaul Shandong's six-point lead to currently sit one point ahead of the 2006 champions. They achieved this by beating Shandong at home 3-2, and Guangzhou by the same score line on Sunday night, despite being two goals down after 35 minutes.
Shenhua's third victory was a more hollow one, a 3-0 win against Wuhan awarded by default following the Hubei side's decision to withdraw from the league in protest against an eight-game suspension handed out to blockbuster signing from Shenhua, defender Li Wei Feng. All of Wuhan's previous results this season have been nullified and a 3-0 victory awarded to all opponents. Fortunately, of the games Wuhan played before their expulsion, they had lost all against the top three so the standings were unaffected.
The form table says it all. Shandong have taken just nine points from their last six games, whereas Shenhua have won five and drawn one of their last six fixtures. Early season pace setters, and very much underdogs Shaanxi Zhongxin, have ten points out of a possible 18 from their last six, but they remain very much in contention. Shenhua currently sit top on 51 points, Shandong just one point behind, and Shaanxi on 48 points. Tianjin Teda, on 44 points, are in with an outside chance if they can replicate Shenhua's recent spurt to the top, but it seems unlikely. In a rather unfortunate metaphor, considering the CSL's scandal-hit history, your correspondent's money is split between Shenhua and Shandong for the title.
This weekend sees Shaanxi host Shenhua--which is surely a must-win game for the Xi'an-based side. Don't forget Shaanxi used to be called Inter Shanghai before changing name and relocating west in 2006 so that will add spice to the occasion. There is also the small matter of Xi'an being one of China's footballing hot beds in terms of large and vociferous supports – check out this clip of them burning a Beijing Guoan team jersey after a game. They have done far worse in the past. Shandong host 12-placed Changsha in a game which they are expected to win. There will be many twists and turns on the pitch before the end of the season, and let's hope no more off-field mishaps distract from what should be an exciting climax to the season.
Tags: Chinese Football, CSL, CSL 2008, Shaanxi Guoli, Shaanxi Zhongxin, Shandong Luneng, shanghai shenhua
Dong Fangzhuo leaves Man U for Dalian
Saturday, 30th August 2008 ~ Cameron ~ Link ~ Comments (0)
In a move as unsurprising as it was predictable, Manchester United's Chinese international striker Dong Fangzhuo has left the club by mutual consent following a rather fruitless five years with the reigning English champions. Dong will re-join his former club, eight-time Chinese Champions Dalian Shide who are currently languishing at the wrong end of the CSL table.Dong was ineligible to play for Manchester when he first signed due to work permit issues, and was farmed out to Belgian side Royal Antwerp to take advantage of slacker employment regulations. He spent four seasons in Belgium, all but one of them in the second division, making 70 appearances and scoring 34 goals – a respectable rate of goal every two games. However, as even the most casual football observer would doubtlessly concur, the gulf in class between the Belgian second division and the top of the English Premiership is massive and Dong made only three appearances for Man U once he was granted a work permit, and none in an important match.
Reaction in the UK sports press to the 23-year-old's departure was somewhat unkind, with The Guardian claiming Dong would be as "remembered as one of the worst players to have ever appeared for the club." Whilst such a description may seem a little harsh for the man who scored China's only goal of the Olympic Football tournament, there can be little doubt that the main motivation behind his signing was a business, and not a sporting one. One hopes that Dong's confidence is not shattered by the naked greed of Premiership chairmen and their desire to empty the pockets of China's long-suffering football fans.
Elsewhere in Chinese football, more foreign disappointment Shanghai Shenhua's highly-rated young goalkeeper Wang Dalei is to return to China following un unsuccessful trial with top Dutch side PSV Eindhoven. The 19-year-old keeper, who had a trial with Inter Milan two years ago, is one of China's most highly-rated youngsters and will be in Shanghai's squad as it makes the short trip south for a derby match against Hangzhou's Zhejiang Lvcheng. A match report of this game will follow on China Sports Today.
Following a lay-off for the Olympics, the Chinese Super League gets back into full swing this week with a full fixture card. Surprise leaders Shanxi Baorong take on Henan Jianye, basement boys Liaoning FC face Changsha Ginde, struggling Dalian Shide take on Tianjin Teda, newly-promoted Chengdu Blades face capital side, Beijing Guoan, Wuhan Guanggu host Shenzhen Shangqingyin, and last season's second division chamipions Guangzhou Yiyao take on second-placed Shandong Luneng.
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Olympic football kicks off... but who will be watching?
Wednesday, 6th August 2008 ~ Cameron ~ Link ~ Comments (1)
The Olympic countdown has been a long and tedious one but mercifully for football (soccer) fans like ourselves it reaches zero a day earlier – the men's Olympic Football tournament kicks off tomorrow evening. And fans of the ladies game need wait no longer - the action commences tonight in Tianjin.Regardless of the merits of women's football, the focus in China will be on the men and specifically of course, the home team. You can read a great many opinion pieces, blog entries, and all manner of football punditry endlessly dissecting the reasons for China's miserable failure to find 11 players from their massive population good enough to make a respectable mark on the world game. But there is a question one will seldom see asked amongst all this pontificating.
Does Olympic football matter and does anyone really care about it?
The answer in the eyes of this columnist is a resounding no. Olympic football has always been the black sheep of international football competition, with a long and awkward relationship with the governing body of football, FIFA. The tournament itself is basically a glorified youth world cup, with each side able to field three players over the age of 23. Whilst that allows a few super-stars, including Brazil's Ronaldinho, to appear at this year's Olympics, it prevents full national sides from appearing – this is something FIFA does not want to see hence its insistence on the under-23 rule to stop the Olympics overshadowing the premier world football event, the World Cup.
If you ask any football fan, "who won the last world cup?" most would be able to say Italy. If you were to ask who were the gold medalists at football in Sydney 2004, the chances are few would be able to come up with the winner. Frankly, I can't even remember myself and I have been a football aficionado as long as I can remember. Whilst the tournament is a useful pointer towards emerging young talents, there is an increasing tendency amongst the big European clubs to refuse to release their players for any tournament without considerable arm-twisting. With the Olympic football tournament well down the pecking order in terms of footballing prestige, its been no surprise to see several club sides reluctant to release their players for this tourney. Fixture congestion is a hot topic in football these days, and with utterly disgusting money-grabbing schemes like the EPL's game-39 being put forward recently, this all adds more pressure on clubs to avoid the ignominy of their young stars getting injured at the Olympics. In short, the Olympics is the pinnacle for all sports—except football, so why bother?
Tim Vickery, the BBC's South America's football reporter, points out that the Olympics is serious business for the South Americans. It's certainly taken more seriously in that most roasting of football hotbeds. However, Brazil have never won an Olympic gold. How can a team win five world cups but not one Olympic gold? Perhaps it's not so important after all.
For the Chinese, the argument that Olympic football is of little consequence in the grand scheme of world soccer will fall on deaf ears. One can only imagine the entire Chinese football world being torn between diametrically opposed emotions – the burning desire to make a decent account of themselves at their own party, with the cold, paralyzing fear of losing yet more footballing face and making an undignified early exit. Shanghai Shenhua's Li Weifeng, Shandong Luneng's Han Peng and Charlton Athletic's Zheng Zhi are the three over-age players in China's squad who will have hopes of Olympian proportions placed on their shoulders in an effort to get past New Zealand, Belgium and (gasp) Brazil and meet their coaches' goal. With almost casual disregard for his own sanity, Chinese Olympic football coach Yin Tiesheng has stated that he believes a top-four finish should be achievable for his team. Such foolish aims will only serve to compound the team's inevitable failure.
China kick off their campaign against New Zealand in Shenyang tomorrow night.
Tags: football, Olympics, soccer
Match report: Shanghai Shenhua v Dalian Shide
Monday, 14th July 2008 ~ Cameron ~ Link ~ Comments (0)
For Dalian are a team in decline. With only one league title in the last five years, the north-eastern side were nowhere near the championship last season or the year before. And this season, they currently languish 13th in the 16-team CSL (Chinese Soccer League). Indeed, this fact was not lost on the Shenhua fans, who gleefully taunted the small band of Dalian travelling fans with chants of Dalian dui jiang ji! (Dalian team, get relegated!) and Dalian dui sha bi le ba, Xian Zai hou hui lai bu ji le ba (Dalian team, now realise you are stupid c*nts, but its too late you find this out )
The game itself was worthy of such terrace banter. Dalian got off to a solid start and looked the more promising team in the opening stages. However Shenhua broke the deadlock on 20 minutes when Chen Liang headed in from a corner to send the home fans wild. The celebrations had barely ceased when Jiang Kun added another, scoring an absolute topper of a goal 60 seconds after the restart. The ball was squared to him at pace from the right and he hit a first time shot from about 25 yards out which screamed into the top corner, leaving the Dalian keeper without a chance in hell. Dalian were on the ropes already and they never recovered from these two sucker punches for the rest of the match.
Proceedings remained very entertaining however and an audacious long range overhead kick from Costa Rican striker Erik Scott hit the post and went out. The action was flowing thick and fast by this point with Shenhua uncharacteristically appearing to forget they were two goals ahead.
Following half time, Dalian were beginning to look like they were running out of ideas. Scott again went close, waiting for the ball to come down at the edge of the box before hitting a clean shot but was denied by a great save from the Dalian keeper. Honduran Emil Martinez really should have scored when fellow central American Scott threaded a ball to him into the penalty box, but the goalie pulled of a great close-range save to keep the score at two-nil. However it was no surprise when Shenhua added a third on the 58th minute following a bit of a goalmouth scramble. The ball was played in from a corner and headed onto the bar, and amidst flailing limbs, the ball fell to defender Du Wei at the edge of the six yard box and he knocked it to finish Dalian off.
From then on the game was completely over as a contest and the pace dropped off rather abruptly. The steamy, humid Saturday night had also taken its tool on the spectators and the players as everyone just went through the motions during the closing stages. Dalian grabbed a late and somewhat undeserved consolation goal right at the death, but by then the Shenhua faithful were in great voice: 3-1 against the once-mighty Dalian was quite a result. Check out the match highlights - and don't miss Jiang Kun's fantastic second goal.
Shenhua have now won seven of their eight home games this season and results elsewhere this weekend see them sit third in the table just three points off leaders Shaanxi Barong. A combination of a break for the Olympics and their next games being on the road mean that Shenhua do not play their next home game until September 28.
Photo courtesy of Ryan Pollack
Tags: Dalian Shide, football, hongkou stadium, Shanghai Shenhua, soccer