On September 23rd, the Chinese Super League (CSL) played a much-anticipated match as Chengdu Rongcheng hosted Shanghai Port. As a result, Chengdu Rongcheng had a player sent off in the 27th minute of the first half of the match, yet they still beat Shanghai Port 2-1. After this game, the lead of SIPG over other teams narrowed down to 8 points, and what is more worrying is that they seem to have lost their bloodlust and enterprising spirit.
It was arguably a very poor start for Shanghai Hong Kong on the road, with a world class goal scored by Chengdu's Gan Chao shortly after the game started. However, after some adjustments, SIPG did show a couple of great attacks, and finally Wu Lei managed to get a foul on the opposing defender Richards and forced him to be sent off with a red card. As the current leaders of the Chinese Super League and with a superior number of players on the pitch, it seemed that Shanghai had started to prepare for a comeback drama, they just didn't anticipate the next development of the game to be so unexpected.
Chengdu's foreigner Andrigo almost had a chance to score a goal before the end of the first half, then in the 53rd minute, Felipe was brought down in the penalty area, and McMurtagh gave Chengdu a penalty kick, which Ekerson scored. At that point, the game was almost over, and it was chilling to see that even in the face of such adversity, Hong Kong still didn't look like the top team in the Chinese Super League, and the game was even played in Chengdu's favor, making people forget that Hong Kong was actually playing with 11 to 10 men on the pitch.
Such a performance will undoubtedly disappoint the SIPG fans. What is hard to understand is why SIPG still managed to stay calm and organize their attack slowly but orderly despite being behind. In the past, that unbeatable scene of continuous passing and quick counter-attacks was only done once by Wu Lei, and the rest of the time SIPG's attacking performance was unsatisfactory. The last round of beating Changchun at home, I thought SIPG could get out of the trough, but I didn't expect it to be such a result.
From the former highly praised and invincible giants of the Chinese Super League, to suffering consecutive defeats and even losses last month, to the performance of treating their weaker opponents without any seriousness in this round, it's clear that the mentality problem of the Shanghai SIPG players has been revealed, and that they have even deteriorated to the point that they are not at all like the same players they were at the beginning of the season. Although it is uncertain whether the reason for the change in the players' mentality comes from inside or outside the game, what is certain is that there is no future for Shanghai SIPG playing in such a way, even if they end up winning the championship with significant advantages this season, what about next year?
Another lesson from this game is that the national team really can't rely on this group of players from Shanghai SIPG FC anymore. Whether it's Stanley Wang, Yan Junling, Zhang Linpeng, Xu Xin, or even Jiang Guangtai and Wu Lei, these players are clearly in their worst form in recent years. With the world qualifiers approaching, if the national team is still counting on them as the core force to compete for a World Cup spot, the result is predictable.
