"I want to play the whole soccer."
The game lasted until the 88th minute with the score still 0-0. Just when everyone thought Shenhua might end up with another draw, Jiang Shenglong's goal was like a flat mine that made the Shanghai Stadium boiled over. The golden goal was also the 1,500th official goal in Shenhua's history.
On the evening of May 15, in the 12th round of the Chinese Super League, Shanghai Shenhua hosted Qingdao Hainiu. At the end of the match, Shenhua beat their opponents 2-0 with goals from Jiang Shenglong and Malelai. Currently, Shenhua continues to lead the league table with 30 points.
Shenhua's offense was dumbfounded in the last round of the away match against Tianjin Jinmen Tigers. Facing the opponent's intensive defense, they failed to score. After the match, Shenhua coach Slutsky also realized that his team needs to find a solution to the intensive defense. However, if you don't get all 3 points, Shenhua's advantage in the table is no longer obvious. Although Malelai's suspension and Teixeira's suspension were the reasons for the poor performance of the offense, Slutsky doesn't think that the absence of individual players will affect the overall tactics.
For Manatees, who are at the bottom of the league, Shenhua has only one goal - to win the game. Facing Shenhua's powerful attacking force, Manatee once saw the hope of getting a point on the road by using defensive counter-attacking tactics.
Jiang Shenglong scored his 1,500th goal in Shenhua's history.
Scoring a goal in front of the Mallet goal.
Throughout the match, Shenhua dominated 61% of the possession and threatened the offense 88 times compared to 32 times for their opponents. Shenhua took 25 shots, 10 of which were on target, while their opponents only took 6 shots, 3 of which were on target. These figures are enough to reflect the power gap between the two teams.
However, the delay in scoring made the players anxious and even Slutsky couldn't sit in the coach's seat. 86 minutes, he came on as a substitute in Hanchao. His abundant physical strength and running speed stirred up the opponent's backline and saved energy for Shenhua's attack in the last minute. 91 minutes, Cao Hui decided to come on as a substitute. The two veterans combined to control the ball on the left side, like flowing water. In extra time, Shenhua again played a wonderful match. After Han Chao pushed the ball across the goal, Malelai easily launched it to seal the win for his team.
Jiang Shenglong's goal proved once again that anyone can step up when the team needs it. Malelai grabbed the points in front of the goal, a sign of his brave form after coming back from injury. For Shenhua, the game was not only a 3-point victory, but also a test of the team's strength and tactics. Tenacity allows the team to generate energy at the last minute, and the determination not to give up also allows the team to gain more unity and cohesion, which is the quality of a truly powerful person.
In a post-game interview, Jiang Shenglong said:Â "All the coaches and players held on until the last minute. We had to get the three points today." With a goal and an empty net save, Jiang was called "the hero of the team" by Slutsky. Talking about the great defense, Jiang said, "As a defender, opponents don't score easily, but the defense will make mistakes and another will make up for it."
Not only Jiang Shenglong, but all Shenhua players interviewed after the match would mention that the result was a joint effort of the team and that everyone was working for the collective interest of the team. This kind of dedicated attitude is also a factor that a strong team must have.
After the match, Slutsky summarized: "It is very difficult to score goals against the opponent's dense defense. If the first goal had come earlier, we would have gotten more space and chances. Breaking a dense defense is a recognized problem in world football, but I'm glad the players didn't give up in the face of difficulties and continued to fight until the last moment to score."
Teixeira will miss a number of games due to injury. Slutsky said in the follow up technical and tactical deployment, "In the absence of Teixeira, our players in the middle could miss the last pass, so we opted for more passing to create chances. As I said before, I prefer to play the whole soccer rather than relying on one or two players. Even though we were missing some important players, we still did our best to ensure the quality and technical and tactical style of play."
Shenhua will then have two away games against Henan and Shenzhen.
