Zhejiang, fifth in the Chinese Super League table, advanced to the AFC Champions League, but Shanghai Seaport made an abrupt exit. They both played their AFC Champions League qualifying matches at home against Thai Premier League teams. Why was the No. 1 team in the Chinese Super League eliminated and the No. 5 team in the Chinese Super League advanced with their heads held high? Some say it's because Shanghai rivals Batang United are stronger than Zhejiang rivals Thai Harbor.
Is that so? A few days after the match, the "cloth of shame" of Shanghai Harbor has been lifted to another corner. Recently, the Thai national team announced their training roster for the 49th King's Cup (pictured below). Pathum United and Thai Harbor each have four players on the roster, many of which are just ties.
Looking at this list, both Baton Rouge United and Thai Harbor have named three midfielders and a defender, while Baton Rouge United has two midfielders and a striker. In terms of composition, Baton Rouge United internationals are more evenly distributed in the midfield and backfield, while Thai Port seems to have a stronger midfield and Baton Rouge has a weaker defender.
With a comparable number of international players, what is the actual strength of these two teams relative to each other? Let's take a look at the latest Thai Premier League rankings (above). Currently Thai Port is ranked second and Batang United is ranked fifth. Looking at last season's rankings, Thai Port's ranking is better than Pathum United. This shows that Thai Port should be a bit higher than Pathum United.
Shanghai is the family of the national soccer team. At least the regulars of the national soccer team include Wu Lei, Yan Junling, Jiang Guangtai, Wang Shenchao, Zhang Linmiao and Xu Xin. In addition, Baitijiang and Li Shuai are both international players. There are more international players than Pathum United, but they are still strong and weak, which really shouldn't be the case.
Looking at the Zhejiang team, there are almost no active international players on the team, not even fringe international players. The only one selected for the national soccer team, Zhang Jiaqi, was N years ago. The number of active international players is 0-4, but Zhejiang knocked out Taikang 1-0. The Thai-Hong Kong team, who outplayed their Hong Kong rivals with fewer players, has to be commended.
It turns out that Zhejiang's opponents are stronger than Shanghai's opponents, not Batang United's stronger than Thai Harbor. So far, the so-called "cloth of shame" of Hong Kong losing to stronger opponents has been lifted to another corner. Zhejiang, Shandong Taishan and Wuhan are the only three towns in the Chinese Super League Big4 that are missing Hong Kong, which is really embarrassing.
Obviously stronger than their opponents, yet they lost. I don't know if it's because they went to Hong Kong and were distracted, or they didn't take the AFC Championship seriously. After being eliminated from the AFC Champions League qualifying round, the first match was against Henan. Javier changed the starting lineup of the second foreigner in the AFC Champions League and suddenly lined up the fourth foreigner in the starting lineup when they played Henan. The fifth place of Chinese Super League can win the second place of Thai Super League. Why did the first place in the Chinese Super League dare to lose the fifth place in the Thai Super League? Shanghai was busy with Cai Huikang apologizing after the match. Throughout, he didn't mention the AFC Champions League loss. It was a qualifying match that put the Chinese Super League to shame. Not mentioning it and pretending not to see it is not why fans forget.
