Shanghai Harbour's road to the title has been exceptionally rocky, from leading the Chinese Super League by 14 points to a five-point deficit in the final two rounds. the battle for the Heavenly King's Mountain with Shandong Taishan on the 29th was shattered by a dispute at the venue. But for the Hong Kong soldiers, the 1-1 draw was enough to make them cheer and celebrate - Wu Lei, who won the Chinese Super League title again after five years, hid his face and wept. He lamented:Â "Winning the title this time is even happier than last time!"
As a matter of fact, the preparation for the port's championship started before the last match against Beijing Guoan. Although we knew our opponent would not be easy to deal with, we still showed great confidence in winning at home. The club's staff quietly planned various coping mechanisms to beat Guoan once and made a point of explaining to the team's media the instructions for interviews after the title win. However, the defeat against Guoan failed everything that was expected.
With a five-point gap, the Super League title is still "in the bag" for Port, but Port has always been unconventional this season, so no one dares to "think too much" before this crucial match with rival Taishan. "Before the game, we basically do not look at some outside predictions and comments, also do not look at the last game lost what, these information are blocked." A core defense player of the Hong Kong team said frankly: "so close to the championship, but did not seize the opportunity before, the mentality is definitely different, but before this game, we are still very determined, must be taken down, can not drag the battle to the last round."
But no one expected the game to be so chaotic. In the first 30 minutes of the game, Seaport and Taishan had a confrontation and the scene was quite good. Zhang Linmiao's breakthrough created a chance for Lv Wenjun to score, and Seaport took a 1-0 lead at home. The goal also brought the field to a boil as long as Bao Ping could take the Super League title early this season. However, after Harbor's goal, the smell of gunpowder on the field grew stronger. Four minutes before the end of the half, the referee showed four consecutive red cards, and the scene was chaotic. Harbour's 9 men were unhappy with Tarzan's 10 men, and Harbour's head coach Harvey, who was unhappy with the referee's punishment, was also unhappy with the situation.
In the second half of the game, the two teams' strategies were clearly different. Taishan stepped up in the attacking end, while Seaport, with one man less, kept holding on to their half of the field. Throughout the first 20 minutes of the second half, Taishan pushed all their power into Harbor's half, with goalkeeper Wang Dalei standing a bit "alone" near the center circle. This is the problem of the champions, the smell of gunpowder always pervades the whole game. 74 minutes, Li Shuai shoveled the ball behind the back, Fernando retaliated in front of the referee by fouling the ball off the top, and also received a straight red. 9 to 9 is also rare in the Chinese Super League. Throughout the game, referee Mai Mai Tijiang showed 5 red cards and 10 yellow cards.
The fans' stands were ready to celebrate after 89 minutes, but Taishan still didn't give up their offense. The 1-1 scoreline was made even more suspenseful in the last seven minutes of extra time after Shi Ke's cross was parried and Xie Wen could break through. However, his luck finally stood in the bumpy harbor with the help of Yan Junling's excellent performance and the goalpost.
Javier, who was sentenced to sit in the stands, frowned the whole time and kept talking to the field on the phone. Finally, the whistle blew, and he finally breathed a sigh of relief, excitedly waving his fist at the highest point of the stands, then rushing all the way down to high-five others. It was his first Chinese Super League title amidst all the skepticism, and the first of his coaching career.
Back in the lounge, Javier enthusiastically expressed his feelings to the players. "Today was the perfect ending. We overcame all the difficulties. We showed everyone that we do our best. We are all fighters! I hope everyone enjoys this championship and the title will come back to Shanghai." He also sent his congratulations to the Chinese and foreign coaching staff and the on-site media with such an excited voice. There was no champagne prepared in the lounge, and the players grabbed sports drinks and sprayed them on him. Javier kept taking it all in with a smile.
Wulai was also emotional. The championship after five years made him a bit emotional. "I feel happier about winning the title this time than last time. We players are much older than five years ago. We really wanted to win this title because the chances were getting fewer and fewer. The fact is that the first half of the season seemed to go well this year, but there were some difficulties in the middle or the second half of the season. In fact, the outside world may not know about a lot of difficulties, so we came out on top in the last key games." Vulet cried on his knees.
Wu Lei, who has had "direct conversations" with fans on social media, summarized the imperfect memories. "The fans gave us a lot of support, but there were some misunderstandings and conflicts between us, but we are a family, and a family will have such and such problems, but our hearts will always be together." As the team leader, Xi Zhikang shouted "Long live the fans" at the post-match conference.
After the game, Port players walked around the field with their relatives. Captain Oscar made it a point to run under the fans' stands and ask for a fan's flag to wave in the center of the field. Although I didn't talk about what's next for me, Oscar had an emotional night as the hero of another Port win. "I've been through so much over the years. I'm glad I stuck it out. I stayed in Shanghai and won another title for the team. I love the team, I love the city."
Tonight, as the song "The First Dream" plays again on the field, "winning the championship" is as exciting as it was five years ago. Just a season of ups and downs, too many stories, whether it is bumps or questions, are worthy of harbor deep thought.
Tears on the night of the championship, with the joy of winning a second title and the depression brought on by the many ups and downs of the second half of the league.
Based on Shanghai Seaport's record before August, their title win should not have been delayed until the penultimate round. At the highest point, they were 14 points ahead of Shanghai Shenhua in second place. No one would have suspected then that they would get the title early, the suspense was only a few rounds ahead. However, since losing 3-4 at home to Zhejiang on August 12, Hong Kong have inexplicably put on a strange brake. They were first held to a 1-1 draw at home by Meizhou Hakka, then eliminated 2-3 in the AFC Champions League play-offs with Thai Premier League side Pathum United.
Two wins and three losses in the next five rounds of the league allowed Shandong Taishan to catch up to just five points off the points. They kept putting the brakes on, sending themselves to the penultimate round for Shandong Taishan. Pingtai Shan's win was welcome, but the four league games they lost at the start of August, especially the home match with Beijing Guoan, raised concerns about whether there were problems within this team.
When the team's performance fluctuated, there were also conflicts between player Choi Wai Hong and fans. Cai posted a friend circle of Hong Kong fans turning their backs to "check which light bulb is broken", which greatly hurt the feelings of Hong Kong fans. The incident ended with the club fining Cai Huikang. Head coach Javier is not only known for his results, but also for his frequent extreme behavior on the pitch due to his inability to control his emotions. For example, during the match with Shandong Taishan, Mai Tijiang actually knelt down after being shown a red card after entering the field in protest.
Wu Lei said "the outside world may not know a lot of difficulties" will naturally cause the outside world association. The reason for all this is that the Shanghai Group is also undergoing a change: at the beginning of August, Yan Jun, the president of the Shanghai Group, suddenly resigned from all his positions, and on August 14th, he was officially declared to be "suspected of a serious violation of discipline and the law". Since then, Port's record, the team's performance, and even the referees' attitude towards the club have all been in stark contrast to the past.
Another factor that should affect the port's performance is the indictment of former CFA chairman Chen Xuyuan at the end of September. The prosecutor's indictment charges clearly stated: "Chen Xuyuan utilized the position of deputy party secretary, president, party secretary, chairman of the board of Shanghai International Port (Group) Co., Ltd., head of the preparatory group for the replacement of the CFA, deputy party secretary of the CFA, chairman and other positions, as well as the position of authority and position of formation of the convenient conditions, for others to seek benefits, and unlawfully accept the property of others.
Two leaders of the Shanghai Group are suspected of corruption, and whether the incidents in question are related to soccer and the club will require a final answer from the public security authorities. However, this situation of the group will undoubtedly cast a shadow on the future of the Hong Kong club. As we all know, since 2014, the Shanghai Group has invested in soccer spending a huge amount of money. Previously there was talk of a 12 billion dollar championship. In these years of the collapse of golden dollar soccer, the high investment in Hong Kong continues due to Oscar's high salary.
The outside world is also trying to figure out if there has been a change in Shanghai Group's future soccer investments after the accidents of Yan Jun and Chen Xuyuan. Shanghai Group has assigned a new party secretary and general manager Sha Changliang to the club. What is the specific strategy for future investment in soccer? The word inside Shanghai Group is that it depends on the attitude of the municipal government.
