Shanghai Seaport lost the face of Chinese soccer when they lost 2-3 at home to Pathum United, who finished 9th in the Thai Premier League last season. After watching this AFC Champions League match, I'm starting to worry about the prospects of China's men's soccer team in the Preliminary 36.
The Chinese men's soccer team is in the same group as the Thai men's soccer team in the round of 36. While Thailand is only ranked 113th in the world by FIFA, the Chinese team may not be able to do it now, especially after watching this AFC Champions League playoff.
In both sides' starting lineups, Shanghai Harbour had six Chinese internationals, goalkeeper Yan Junling, center backs Jiang Guangtai, Wang Shenchao, Zhang Linmiao and Xu Xin, and striker Wu Lei. Pathum United also fielded six Thai internationals, goalkeeper Buttpong, center backs Thumkul, Yorn, Prasuwan and Songkrasin, and striker Dangda.
I don't know if Port coach Javier has blind faith in the local players or if he plans to work on the Super League in three days. They only got a double foreigner for the first leg, with Oscar and Lucas João, Pinko, Vargas and Caron on the bench. However, the result was far from expectations. The local players really couldn't support the offensive line. The team failed to overwhelm the opposition on the offensive end, instead leading to a sharp increase in pressure on the center and back defense, which ended up being porous.
Seaport conceded a goal for the first time as Xu Xin was cut off with the ball in midfield.
Batun Luen just picked out the ball with one foot after a wide open sky in front of him. At that time, I wondered, buy Tijiang could have gone over and grabbed it. Why did he brake suddenly? Wasn't Dhonda not Bale with the ball at the time and Xu Xin couldn't keep up? Did Sergeyev need four defenders to keep an eye on him?
As the first country of the national soccer team, Yan Junling has some problems with his positional choices. In fact, Zhang Linmiao's defense has basically closed off the far corner. Sergeyev basically only has one option for the near corner, but Yan Junling can't close it. No wonder he was ridiculed by fans as the "Regent". As a professional goalkeeper, throwing at the near corner is a mistake.
Zhang Linmiao also had a lot to do with the second goal conceded at Shanghai Harbour. He stopped like Fu Huan back in the day after Sung Klaasin's outswinging cross looped over him, not realizing that Sergeyev behind him could add to it.
In port, Stanley Wong played right back, but he repeated the tragedy of the left back of the national soccer team. This time, he was facing the "Thai Messi" Sung Klaasin's Japanese fast horse, Jun Ito. In just one minute, Stanley Wong was humiliated twice and eventually conceded the goal.
The three goals scored by Pathum United, although none of them were scored by Thai players, were all directly involved and orchestrated by two Thai internationals, Sonkrasin and Dangda. The national soccer team's goalkeeper and central midfield are almost exclusively Hong Kong-based, with the addition of Zhu Chenjie and Wu Xi at the most.
I believe that after watching this AFC Champions League, the hearts of many national soccer fans are cold. None of the so-called harbor national football starters can get it, even the striker Wu Lei. As the main striker of the national soccer team, when you need to save the team in the last minute, you will kick the equalizer goal to the goalkeeper, so you will not hit the sides of the goal?
At every turn, Lei was hitting the goal, covering his mouth, holding his head, and the iconic triple-team, a spitball that made the fans look bad.
