By Leo Li, Special Correspondent, From the end of the 24th round on September 17th to the end of the 25th round on October 9th, the China First Division League is in the middle of a nearly three-week break. Shijiazhuang Kung Fu, the fourth-ranked team in the league, took advantage of the short break to train and prepare for the match at the Hongta base in Yunnan.
Although the top two, Sichuan Jiuniu and Qingdao West Coast, have already taken the initiative to overtake the Super League, Shijiazhuang Kung Fu Team has clearly not given up on their endeavor and are hitting the end of the season at full speed.
Information: Over-reliance on Ogbu
It's easy to see from the current China League One table that there is a two-goal gap between fourth-placed Shijiazhuang Kung Fu and the two teams in the Super League zone. With only six rounds left in the league, it's really hard to catch up. The situation that Shijiazhuang Kung Fu is currently facing stems from the team's recent poor performance in the league. After a coaching change in the first phase, they put together an impressive seven-game winning streak and soared up the rankings from the middle of the table. At the height of their ranking, they were second in the table. However, over the past month, Shijiazhuang Kung Fu's rapid forward momentum has hit a snag. In the past five rounds of matches, they only won two.
In the other four matches, Shijiazhuang Kung Fu lost to Dongguan Union and tied three matches with Shenyang City, Guangxi Pingguo Ha Yin and Nanjing City. Among them, Guangxi Pingguohayin and Nanjing City were both direct conversations beyond their competitors. It can be said that it is these key battles were not played well, Shijiazhuang Kungfu gradually lost the initiative to overtake.
Shijiazhuang Kung Fu team's ups and downs precisely reflect the team in absolute strength compared with Sichuan Jiuniu, Qingdao West Coast, Guangxi Pingguo Hanyin and other teams still have a certain gap. After the 23rd round home draw with Guangxi, Shijiazhuang Kung Fu goalkeeper Sui Weijie went to the field to communicate with the camp of fans who shouted "brake". One of the comments was "If you don't watch soccer, besides Ding Haifeng, which player do you know? Well, I'm famous for drinking water. Who else is on our team?" It's pretty funny. It's blunt, but it's the state of this team.
Another reason for the team's recent poor record is that it is hard to find other effective ways to score when top scorer Ogbu is strictly limited by opponents. Right now Ogbu is still on top of the Central League scoring list with 15 goals, but he has only scored 1 goal in his last 5 matches, in other words, the scorer has scored 14 goals in 19 matches. Shijiazhuang Kung Fu Team's performance is directly related to Ogbu's performance. In the last five rounds of matches without goals, all teams failed to win and scored 3 points in the matches with goals. This also shows that the team is too dependent on Ogbu's individual form. As a matter of fact, all the teams in the Central League have now strengthened their restriction and defense against the top scorer of the season, which leads to the decrease of Ogbu's scoring efficiency is also normal. In this case, Shijiazhuang Kung Fu coaching staff should also find a solution as soon as possible to improve the team's offense and defense problems at the technical and tactical levels. From the overall performance of the team in recent games, if we can't activate Ogbu as soon as possible, and give more support to the team in the offensive end, then no matter whether it's facing the relegation team like Jiangxi Lushan and Shanghai Jiading, or facing the offensive team like Heilongjiang Bingcheng and Qingdao West Coast, the next league game will definitely be more difficult.
