In the last 32 of the 2021 National Football Association Cup, a sudden match ended yesterday, Guangzhou team with a youthful team in a hurry, unfortunately with a score of 0-1 lost to the Central B powerhouse Qingdao Fanghua Island, "willingly" stepped on the last train of the knockout stage. The result was a surprise to the fans, but for the struggling Guangzhou team, it seemed to be a relief, at least, they have "safely" passed another hurdle.
Guangzhou team left the field voluntarily
As the match between Guangzhou and Qingdao Fanghua Island progressed to the 84th minute, substitute goalkeeper Guo Jiayu was warming up on the sidelines, ready to come on at any time. We thought he was going to replace the starting goalkeeper Zhang Jianzhi, but we didn't realize that it was the defender Chen Rijin who was actually replaced. For a while, there were two goalkeepers on the pitch. While the crowd was surprised, starting goalkeeper Zhang Jianzhi was called back to the bench by the coach, and in a hurry, his No. 48 jersey changed from green to red, and then he returned to the game, and his position changed from goalkeeper to center forward.
What's going on here? It turns out that Guangzhou only brought 15 players to this AFC Cup match, including two goalkeepers. After starting with 11 players, there were only four players left on the bench. Guangzhou conceded a goal in the 37th minute, and the score continued to fall behind after that. In the last 5 minutes, the coaching staff tried to change the formation to allow a high center forward to enter the opponent's penalty area to make an impact, but unfortunately there was no suitable candidate. The coaching staff had no choice but to let Zhang Jianzhi, the tallest player in the team, to play the role of high center forward temporarily, thus staging this "humorous" scene.
In fact, this is also a helpless move of the coaching team. This AFC Cup, Guangzhou team only brought 15 players to participate in the coaching staff is less than half of the usual number of members, logistics personnel only two or three people, so behind the action, only for two words: save money. Since the club's parent company suffered a crisis, the Guangzhou team has fallen into a shortage of funds. It is reported that the AFC Cup, most of the other Chinese Super League teams will be their own team bus to the tournament area, such as Shenzhen team's bus from Shenzhen, traveled 3,000 kilometers, arrived in Changchun ahead of time, to provide better service for the team. Guangzhou's team bus only pulled the team from their base to Guangzhou airport two days before the match, and then returned to their base. During the three days in Jinan, Guangzhou could only rent a local bus to transport the team.
