By Rumi When Taishan beat Shenhua 2-0 a day early and took the first three points, these three towns resisted the pressure and beat Shandong's Guoan 2-0 by the same margin and stayed neck and neck with Taishan at the top of the table.
Guoan has been in good form recently, they have been undefeated for eight rounds and even won a three-game winning streak. "Guoan is a strong team and in this match we must perfect all the details as much as possible in order to get a satisfactory result." Said Pedro, Tri-Town's head coach, before the match. In the first round of the competition, Three Town beat Guoan 5-1, leading to Xie Feng's dismissal. But that game, according to Pedro, was not one-sided, "Guoan also created many threats."
Pedro said that the league is long and he is proud of his achievements as a promoted team, "At the beginning of the season I told them to treat every game as a final and to do their best, and they achieved that. The next thing we have to do is to play the rest of the games well."
Despite the fact that Malcolm's suspension was over, Pedro kept him on the bench and the starting lineup followed the same personnel as in the last round. Both sides were in good shape compared to the first round, with Town already back to their best. At the start of the game, the three towns' players quickly got into their stride and launched a high level of pressing. Guoan was stronger in front of goal and relatively poor in defense.
In the midfield, the two sides engaged in a game where every inch had to be fought for. Guoan's third midfield featured Zhang Xizhe, Ji Zhongguo and Gao Tianyi prominently. Pedro met Stancho, He Chao and Xie Pengfei, touching other positions and strengthening the integrity of the defense, making the ball less fluid in Guoan's midfield and slowing down their attacking tempo.
In attack, although the big hitter Malcolm wasn't on the pitch, Davidson, Stanchou and Edmilson, along with Xie Pengfei, weren't much of a threat. Stanciu, because of his defensive duties, was effectively Davidson's initiator from defense to offense, and he often retreated from midfield. Edmilson's aggressive running up front limited Guoan's defense. In addition, these three Towns had many connecting points up front as the bottom of both sides of the field were open. In the extra time of the first half, the left side of the three towns was shifted, Housen slipped in front of the goal, and Deng Hanwen hit an empty net with an assist from Xie Pengfei.
Throughout the first half, both sides had essentially five to five possessions, but in terms of the number of shots and passes, Three Town was higher than Guoan. The two sides were actually similar throughout the stats, especially in terms of shots, with Guoan only having two fewer than Three Towns after stepping up their offense in the second half, but unfortunately, they failed to capitalize. The second half was stoppage time when Davidson broke through the box and was brought down by Park Young for an Edmilson penalty. In the end, Three Town won 2-0 and stayed level with Tarzan.
It should be said that San Zhen and Guoan gave a great game and San Zhen withstood in the face of pressure.
"Looking at the whole game, Guoan didn't have many threatening chances." Pedro said, "In the second half, they frantically counterattacked, hoping to press us in the half, but our defense limited them." He also expressed his satisfaction with his team's offense, "The athletes ran aggressively and worked well together to create many goal scoring opportunities."
Stanley skipper Nationwide admitted to not being as good as Three Town, "They have a good offense and defense, it's hard for us and playing with them is really different than any other team."
Pedro said that in addition to the technical and tactical, he wanted to set up the three as a resilient team, "not to be afraid of any opponent, no matter what they are facing, and then to play well one by one, and you can see that in that, they are doing a good job."
After defeating their opponents in the previous round with a score of 4-1, Taishan and Samchung also won 2-0 in this round. You can see that both sides are biting off more than they can chew and don't want to make any mistakes and fall behind.
In their next match, Taishan will have no problem winning against Hebei; and Sanzhen will have to play the not-so-weak Henan.On November 18, the two sides will face each other in the second round at Sanzhen's home ground.
