When it comes to defenders with the ability to play both forward and defense, international soccer stars such as David Luiz, Gerard Piqué, and Mats Hummels often come to mind. They not only excel in the defensive end, but also come forward at critical moments to help the team a fatal blow, comparable to the team's fourth striker. In China's soccer field, there is also no shortage of such defenders with knives, Tianjin Teda's legendary veteran Cao Yang is one of the examples. According to statistics, Cao Yang has scored 56 goals in 15 seasons for Tianjin TEDA, including 51 in the league, 3 in the Chinese Super Cup and 2 in the AFC Champions League. Cao Yang is second only to striker Yu Genwei on the list of total goals scored in TEDA's team history. In addition, Cao Yang also set a record: from 2002 to 2014, 13 consecutive seasons of league goals, TEDA's most, worthy of the title of China's first with a knife defender.
However, the 2019 season saw the curtain come down on the legendary player's career when 37-year-old Cao Yang chose to retire. But the title of defender with a sword has been passed on, and the successor is none other than former Jiangsu Suning international Li Ang. One of the few college players in the Chinese Super League, Li only officially entered the league in the 2014 season, but he has scored goals every season since then. Unlike Cao Yang, Li Ang's goals have mainly come from free kicks and superb long-range shots. Despite being a center back, Li Ang's set piece footwork is perfect. Over the past few seasons, his free kicks have become a killer feature for Jiangsu Suning, especially last season when he helped the team win their first ever Chinese Super League title. Unfortunately, before the start of this season, Jiangsu Suning announced that the team was disbanded. Li Ang eventually chose to join Shanghai SIPG, but he has yet to score a goal this season.
Of course, such a bandwagon defender national team manager Li Tie naturally will not be ignored. In the Top 40, Li Ang also became a member of the national team, and made his debut against the Maldives in the game, the performance is noteworthy. Although the current status of Li Ang in the national team is not the main force, but his type in the future will certainly be able to help the national team.
Recently, there has been exciting news that we may be getting a new Li Ang. The new Li Ang is 19 years old and is the current captain of the National Youth Football Team, Liang Shaowen, who plays for Beijing Guoan. Liang Shaowen, a center back, originally played with the National Youth Football Team in the second division and impressed by scoring a header in the league as captain. Later, Liang Shao Wen was recalled to play in the AFC Champions League due to Guoan's need to send young players to the tournament.
Of course, the predominantly young team was not favored by outsiders, and some even thought that this team would be beaten by other AFC Champions League opponents. However, surprisingly, this low-expectation team brought us a surprise. In the first round of the AFC Champions League group stage, Guoan's match against United City of the Philippines, despite conceding a goal first and being suppressed by the statistics of the whole match, with Liang Shaowen's excellent play, Guoan finally got a draw, which is also the first point of the Chinese Super League in this year's AFC Champions League.
It was the 72nd minute of the second half when Beijing Guoan had a free kick opportunity in front of the field. At that moment, 19-year-old youngster Liang Shaowen took the initiative to come forward and replace his teammate to take the penalty. He took a free kick with his left foot with just the right speed, angle, and strength, which even stunned the opposing goalkeeper. The free kick's footwork was just like Li Ang's, with the same perfect arc and the same pursuit of the dead center, which was really pleasing to the eye. In addition, this goal also set a number of records, in addition to the first goal of this year's AFC Champions League Chinese Super League, Liang Shaowen with the age of 19 years and 14 days to become China's first AFC Champions League scored after 00 players, but also in China's football world's youngest AFC Champions League goal scorer.
Of course, besides this goal, Liang Shaowen was also comfortable on the defensive end. It can be seen that he has played a few more matches in the China B League than his teammates, and he is more adapted to the game and more confident. We believe that if Liang Shaowen can get the key training, he will surely have some achievements in the future, at least he can reach the level of Li Ang. Of course, there are some people who think that the 01 National Youth Football Team is the weakest in the past 20 years, because they didn't even enter the Asian Youth Football Championship. But in fact, we still have a lot of players with outstanding individual ability, only that they have fewer chances to participate in high-quality matches, and their potential has not yet been tapped. I believe that with the improvement of the league system in the future, more young players will stand out, just like Liang Shaowen.
