The Road to the Rise of Wuhan's Three Towns
Wuhan Sanzhen, a team with powerful foreign aid.
Source: Pescadores
It may seem unexpected, but it makes sense.
Halfway through the first phase of the Chinese Super League (CSL), promoted Wuhan Sanzhen is leading the standings with 13 points from four wins and one draw.
Wuhan Three Town's performance this season is reminiscent of Guangzhou Evergrande's 11 years ago - can the promoted team replicate Evergrande's "Kaiserslautern Myth"?
In the Chinese Super League, does practical foreign aid and a stable domestic player squad mean a title win is possible?
Xie Pengfei takes a corner and Malcom heads home.
Shanghai Seaport Encounters Challenges
Facing two strong teams, Guangzhou and Wuhan Sanzhen, in two consecutive rounds, Shanghai Seaport's challenge should not be underestimated.
Guangzhou is no longer as majestic as it used to be, and the 0-1 loss was expected; while the showdown with the stable Wuhan Sanzhen was a great test for the seaport.
Seaport was noticeably slow to get going during the game, with two first-half defensive errors on overhead kicks that were scored by Tri-Town wideouts Malcolm and Renhang respectively.
Stancho opened the scoring with a header from Ren.
Less than half-time, Lecco replaced Xu Xin and Ndiaye, and the tactical adjustments paid off - Feng Jin assisted Ndiaye's second-half equalizer - but Seaport still lost 1-2.
Seaport has won 2 and lost 3 of their 5 games at the halfway point, accumulating 6 points, 7 points away from Wuhan Sanzhen.
Three Town started the season well, beating Hebei and Guangzhou 4-0 and 6-0 respectively in the first two rounds, and although they drew with Shenhua in the third round, they beat derby rivals Wuhan Changjiang and Seaport in the following two rounds to get off to the perfect start.
Feng Jin assisted Ndiaye to equalize.
The horn to be blown for the championship
The match against Seaport was seen as a litmus test for Wuhan Sanzhen's ability to blow the title out of the water, and the final result was in line with Sanzhen's expectations, with manager Pedro expressing his satisfaction with the outcome of the match.
"It was a tough game and I am happy with the performance of the players. In the second half you could see that Harbour had a lot of strength and posed a threat to us, and every one of our players gave it their all."
Leko also admitted that Harbour is not in good form at the moment, "The side that played better won the game. At the moment, we are still a long way from the top teams in the Super League and not up to that level."
The latest table of the Chinese Super League.
Recreating the Everest of 11 years ago?
The three towns of Wuhan are now very similar in every way to Guangzhou Evergrande, which was just upgraded in 2011.
First of all, the club has a stable financial base, which ensures the signing of competent players in the transfer market.
After the upgrade, Three Town retained Edmilson and Malcolm, and signed three foreigners, Stanciu, Wallace and Davidson, with Romanian international Stanciu's actual role on par with Evergrande's Mr. Ten Million Dollar Kongka that year.
Many of the players signed by Evergrande back then in the era of gold-dollar soccer have now moved to the three towns of Wuhan, including internationals Liu Dianzha, Deng Hanwen, Gao Junyi and He Chao.
At the same time, the three towns also signed Xie Pengfei, Tao Qianglong and other power players, which is the same as Evergrande's transfer strategy that year.
Wuhan Sanzhen has excellent local players and practical foreigners.
However, it remains to be seen whether the overall level of Spanish coach Pedro at Three Town can match the demands of the title race.
Against Shenhua, Pedro's second-half substitution of goal-scorer Xie Pengfei and three frontline wide men gave Shenhua the chance to equalize in the final moments.
Pedro was too conservative in his halftime adjustments in this match, replacing Xie Pengfei with back-rower He Chao, resulting in a weak Three Town attack, and a chance for Seaport to equalize after Ndiaye's goal.
Spanish coach Pedro.
It's not impossible for a promoted team to win the title
In the history of international and Chinese soccer, it is extremely rare to see a case like Kaiserslautern winning the top league as a promoted team.
China's professional league since 1994 to date, only Guangzhou Evergrande 2011 replicated this myth; in 1999, Liao Xiaohu although only one round to complete the miracle, but ultimately in the body of the national security obstruction, can only watch Shandong won the championship.
Judging from the first five rounds of the league season, Wuhan Three Town is not without chances.
Defending champions Shandong Taishan and Shanghai Seaport are facing their own difficulties, Taishan team Guo Tianyu stayed away from the sea can not return, Cressan returned to the team late, Fellaini suffered an injury crisis.
Harbor faced more difficulties with unsystematic preparations and the inability of foreigners to return, resulting in only six points in the first five rounds of matches.
Tri-Town and Seaport have another direct match in Round 10, and if Seaport loses again, they will risk having their point difference widened to more than 10 points, making it much more difficult for them to win the title.
"The championship is more difficult, let's make sure we win first and play every game first." Leko admitted that Wuhan Three Town are the best team in form at the moment, "They have power and speed. Next, we will summarize and analyze the matches to see how we can improve."
Pedro, on the other hand, said that the topic of winning the title is not an obsession for the team, "I passed on the soccer philosophy to the players, and we are just playing every game. We are new to the Super League and it's too early to think we are one of the top teams, we need to keep our feet on the ground."
With a number of Chinese Super League teams facing an economic crisis, and with quality foreign aid and a stable class of domestic players, promoted Wuhan Sanzhen can quickly become favorites to win the title.
Is this lucky or unlucky for Chinese soccer?
