45-year-old head coach Li Guoxu is a living fossil of Dalian soccer. in 1997, at the age of 19, Li Guoxu entered the Dalian Wanda first team wearing the No. 19 jersey. From Chi Shangbin to Xu Genbao, Li Guoxu was a highly regarded young player. In order to catch up with the heyday of Dalian soccer, Li Guoxu left to develop in Dalian. Chongqing Hongyan, Shaanxi Guoli, Chongqing Lifan, Boca Juniors and Chengdu Sheffield United all left their footprints.
In 2009, Li Guoxu returned to Dalian after his retirement and joined the recently established Dalian Albion coaching staff. No stranger to a playbook of constant upgrades and transcendence, Li Guoxu took on the role of Assistant Coach and Reserve Team Head Coach for Chinese Super League newcomers Albion in 2012. Since then, he has also served as assistant coach of China's U19 youth team, head coach of Dalian Super League's first team and head coach of Dalian's reserve team.
In the past three years, Li Guoxu started from zero and led the team to a breakthrough, from the Chinese Championship to the Central League.
The new season of the Central League started with Dalian Yingbo facing Qingdao Red Lions in the first match away for additional promotion, Fei Yu's goal gave the team a good start. In the second match against Suzhou Dongwu, before the end of the game, Lv Peng delivered an assist and Yan Peng completed the shutout.
In the third round, Dalian Yingbo had its first home game against Guangxi Pingguo, the super favorite to finish fourth in last year's Central League. It was another 1-0, with 38-year-old veteran Yan Xiang scoring the winning goal, and Dalian Yingbo won its third consecutive game.
In the first home game, ticket sales were exceptional. The original plan was to open only one stand for the game, but a large number of fans did not buy tickets, and the club finally decided to temporarily open some second-floor stands. For the first home game, 23,118 fans entered.
After three rounds, Dalian Yingbo became the only team among the 16 teams in the Central League to win all of their matches and the only team to not concede a goal. Lv Peng, Fei Yu, Sun Bao and Yan have almost replicated Dalian's lineup in the midfield. 41-year-old goalkeeper Sui Weijie has become stronger, and young players and Xiaoqiang, who are on loan from Guoan, have settled into the starting wingback positions.
After the dissolution of the Dalian people, Dalian Yingbo has high hopes for the Dalian soccer circle. At the beginning of the year, Dalian Yingbo was preparing for the 2025 National Games in the Dalian U19 ladder team warm-up match, former Dalian Wanda No. 10 player Shi Lei and Dalian Shide captain Zhang Yaokun went to the scene to watch the game. Zhou Ting also became the head coach of Dalian Yingbo U19 team.
Dalian Yingbo is copying the upgrade path of Dalian Albin. The team's investment and staffing gives Dalian fans reason to believe that the return of Dalian soccer to the Chinese Super League is not far away.
