On August 26, the passion of Chinese soccer was reignited in the 15th round of the 2022 Chinese Super League season. Beijing Guoan welcomed Shanghai Shenhua to their hometown of Rizhao. Despite Han Chao and Bassogo's respective contributions, Guoan suffered an unexpected 0-2 defeat after dominating the entire match. It's worth noting that Guoan have consistently underachieved against the top five teams this season.
The national team did not make any large-scale personnel changes in this game, with players such as Yu Dabao and Yu Yang still sitting on the bench. Memishevich partnered with Bo Yang, the midfield was led by Zhang Xunzhe and Ji Zhongguo, and the forward line was led by Zhang Yuning as the arrow. In contrast, Shenhua adopted a defensive counterattack strategy. Due to injuries, Jin Yangyang partnered Jiang Shenglong for the first time, midfielder Wu Xi made a timely comeback, and veteran Yu Hanchao was given more space to play.
At the beginning of the game, Guoan team took the initiative, but Shenhua team with tenacious scrambling and running, in the field is not in the wind, which makes it difficult for Guoan team to find a good opportunity to break the goal. It was not until the 16th minute that Guoan had a threatening shot on goal, Zhang Yuning's shot from a small angle inside the penalty area went past the goal. Shenhua's tactics successfully limited Guoan, and the team's first goal was a simple sideline play when Guoan was attacking at full strength. Yu Hanchao easily passed the defending Bo Yang, forming a one-touch shot, and faced Zou Dehai to complete the goal with a pump shot. The second goal is also simple, relying on the speed of Yu Hanchao, in the back of the attack to create a penalty kick, Bassogo a cue, two goals ahead of the Shenhua team is also firmly on the defensive counterattack.
Shenhua's offense was extremely efficient, with 4 shots on goal and 3 hits resulting in 2 goals. On the other hand, Guoan was getting impatient after falling behind and facing a barrel formation, and the team didn't have many means of offense, relying on side passes most of the time, but the effect was not good. The whole game 31 passes, only 6 successful, the rest were all destroyed by the Shenhua team's defenders, 17 feet shot only 2 feet shot on target, efficiency is very poor. Zhang Yuning continued his poor form from the previous game and left the field in the last minute of the game due to injury, I don't know if this will have any effect on the later games.
Both goals conceded by Guoan were very simple, and rather than Shenhua's tactical success, Guoan's defense once again made undue mistakes. Defensive problems have always been a pain point for Guoan. After the team's change of command, the team abandoned the previous repeated mistakes of Yu Dabao, Yu Yang, Zhang Chendong, etc., and Meimeišević pulled back to the center back position. However, this approach in the face of rankings in the lower reaches of the team is still working, to play a hard battle, I do not know whether it is the ability to degradation or strength problems, the defense, no matter how to change the formation will not help. This season, when facing the top five teams, Guoan team either draw or lose, 1-5 loss of three towns, 0-3 loss of Henan, 0-2 loss of Shenhua, only against Meizhou to get two draws. It seems that this year's Guoan team, the overall strength is also the middle level of the Super League.
It is worth mentioning that the new foreign manager of Guoan team is basically confirmed to be the former reserve team manager Stanley, the Dutchman had previously led the youth army of Guoan team to sift through the full-strength Chengdu Rongcheng in the F.A.C.A. Cup, breaking into the top 8. He knows the young players in the Guoan team very well, and his arrival may see a change in today's Guoan team. Under his leadership, the likes of Liang Shaowen, Liu Guobo and Tian Yuda may get more chances to play. After all, this season's Guoan team has been so successful, it is better to let the young players grow up quickly. (DD)
