AFC Champions League Analysis
Reported by Liu Xiangyu, Cai Zonglin, Chen Wei
On May 21st, AFC announced the schedule for the East Asian Champions League group stage, spanning from June 24th to July 9th, clashing with the 6th to 9th rounds of the Chinese Super League (June 21st to July 8th). This means that the three giants of the Chinese Super League will have to make a choice, with Guoan now virtually certain to be represented by a U20 team, while Guangzhou and Seaport are also likely to send reserve teams to the tournament. This is perhaps the weakest squad ever for the Chinese Super League in the AFC Champions League, and after the group stage debacle in 2009, it faces a huge challenge once again.
Guoan, the last of the BIG3 to finalize the venue, was not scheduled to play in Tashkent, Uzbekistan until early May.
Last year's AFC Champions League saw Guoan make a historic breakthrough, reaching the quarterfinals of the East Asian zone and becoming the Chinese Super League team with the best result in last season's AFC Champions League. And this year, Guoan's opponents in the group stage include Union City of the Philippines, Kawasaki Striker of the J-League, and the winner of Daegu FC/Chiang Rai United of Thailand in the K-League, which is not a bad opponent. However, it is still unclear about the battle for the AFC Champions League. The fact that Guoan is sending its youth army to the tournament means that it has strategically given up on the AFC Champions League, but the club says that it cannot afford to be lax in its approach to the competition. And go out to the intercontinental tournament, for young players, is also a rare experience, the growth will be extremely helpful.
Last year, due to the main players involved in the Asian Championship, the AFC Cup, Guoan had sent U21 to play in the second round of the 1-0 victory over Chengdu Rongcheng, the opponent almost all the main players, and whether the game experience and physical conditions, are better than the Guoan youth army. Guoan's win was the biggest upset of the tournament. Guoan's performance also proved that they did not give up on the game, and will fight for the win in every game. However, when they faced Wuhan in the third round, Guoan lost 0-3. However, this trip to the AFC Cup has allowed the outside world to recognize the youngsters of these years, and they have made great gains.
In fact, the main task of this year's Guoan team is the National Games. In the already-concluded qualifying round of the National Games, Beijing U20, which is composed of players of the team's age, made a breakthrough by advancing to the final round at the top of the group, for the first time in 12 years.
Guoan youth training deputy director Yang Pu said in an interview, the ability of this group of players is good, and in the training and competition together for close to 10 years, has reached a "qualitative change" time, "the next few months, this unit will shoulder this season's AFC Champions League group matches and the National Games competition task! The next few months, this team will be responsible for this season's AFC Champions League group stage and the main competition of the National Games, which is very challenging for them. That is to say, they will first go to Uzbekistan at the end of June to participate in the Asian Championship, if all goes well, after the completion of the mission of the Asian Championship, and then come back to participate in the National Games. Now, our approach is to juggle these two events." Yang Pu said, "The Asian Championship is to represent our country and the National Games is to compete on behalf of Beijing, we can't afford to slack off."
In this youth army, there are many good seedlings, in addition to the already well-known Leng Jixuan, Liang Shaowen, as well as Hu Jiaqi and Shi Yu Cheng, etc., they have the opportunity to enter the first team of Guoan in the future.
In recent years, Guoan has made great efforts in youth training, and the Dutch youth training system has been integrated into every age group team. This time out in the AFC Champions League is a brand-new challenge for the lads to see if this youth army can have a bright performance when facing real high-level opponents, in addition to the final stage of the All-China Games, where they will have to compete for a better result.
Guangzhou is in Group J. The venue is set in Buriram, Thailand, and the group stage opponents, in addition to Thai Premier League's Thai Harbour and Hong Kong Premier League's Jie Zhi, are the winners of the play-off between J-League's Sakura Osaka and Australian Premier League's Melbourne Victory.
For the Guangzhou team, the venue Thailand's Buriram Lei Fort Football Club is no stranger, the 2012 season, their first time to play the AFC Champions League, and Buriram United in the same group, the final round of the group stage, in the pouring rain in Lei Fort, Kongka final penalty shot before the end of the game to assist the team to get a life-saving three points, and ultimately pressed the dominant K-League Jeonbuk to promote, the first time to participate in the last 16, and the competition, but also the Lee Jang-soo's last battle, back to Yangcheng into the Silver Fox era.
Guangzhou's second visit to Leipzig Football Club was in 2018, and the two teams, who have become regulars in the AFC Champions League, met again in the group stage. However, the Guangzhou team this trip can be called "Lost in Thailand", the whole team traveled chartered because of the local small airport runway accident, resulting in Cannavaro and his disciples stayed in Bangkok for many hours, arrived in Leiburg stomping ground has been close to the early morning, the reporter also experienced the history of the latest start of a pre-match conference, after such a journey, the two teams 1 to 1 draw! The two teams drew 1-1 after such a long journey.
It should be said that the hosting of the AFC Champions League group stage, Lehboldt's venue conditions are still trustworthy, the owner of Buriram United Chen Naiwen spent huge sums of money to make this professional stadium, the turf quality is very good, the stadium is also next to the exclusive supporting hotels and training grounds, before the national football team was once considered, in this stadium to play in the epidemic delayed by the 40 strong matches.
However, this AFC Champions League, Guangzhou team is also facing the problem of collision, in which, the group stage round 5, but also with the Guangzhou team against Taishan's Chinese Super League round 9 competition on the same day, only 5 hours apart, coupled with the return from abroad to participate in the isolation and quarantine must be subjected to, the Guangzhou team is bound to split the troops, and, to participate in the youth army.
For the Guangzhou team, it would be a good exercise opportunity to let the football school product experience the baptism of the Asian field, but with such an arrangement, it may not be possible to consider the results.
It is worth mentioning that Chang Weiwei, the former head coach of the Guangzhou reserve team, returned to his hometown this year to coach the Wuhan women's soccer team, which has Wang Frost, and if the youngsters are to play in the AFC Champions League, the coaching staff will have to find a head coach who meets the requirements of the AFC.
Despite the fact that only three teams from the Super League are participating, Seaport will still have to play the play-offs. According to the AFC's schedule, Seaport will face the winner of the match between Brisbane Lions and Kaya Philippines (qualifying on June 20) on June 23 at 6 p.m. in Thailand. On the same day, Seaport has a Chinese Super League match against Wuhan, so Seaport should have an alternate or perhaps a team in the competition.
Originally, Seaport did not qualify for the AFC Champions League, but because Taishan was penalized by the AFC, they qualified for the AFC Champions League by default. If they win the play-offs, Seaport will enter Group F, which contains Thai Premier League's Pathum United, K-League's Ulsan and Vietnam Telecom. If they lose, they will go straight home.
Last year's AFC Championship, which was played only after the Chinese Super League, was requested by the CFA, so the BIG4 abandoned the AFC Cup and sent their main players to participate in the AFC Championship. But after the competition, because of flights and other problems, the team was once trapped in the hotel, after a few twists and turns to come back to the country. This year, if you send the main force again, the impact will be more than a direct conflict in time four rounds of the league, taking into account the isolation and other issues, at least seven or eight rounds of the league to be absent, which is the teams can not afford.
Last year's AFC Cup, Harbour similarly fielded a young force, and that list, with the exception of 27-year-old striker Li Hao Wen, consisted of U23s, including as many as 11 U21s, the youngest of whom was 2003-born goalkeeper Kun Liang. The participating players, however, are almost all from Shanghai Harbor's 2018 league championship class in all age groups.
At that time, Seaport spent three weeks to reorganize the team, and also recalled some loaned out players, including Zhang Hua Chen and Wei Lai from Nantong; Zhou Zheng, Zhu Jiayi, Li Shenyuan, Huang Zhenfei and Sun Guan'o from Inner Mongolia; and Li Hao Wen from Suzhou. It can be said that, in addition to Hu Jinghang, who was playing in Wuhan at the time, and Shi Xiaodong, Nantong's main goalkeeper, did not come back, and everyone else came back, but now, at this time, all levels of the league has just started, and certainly can not be recruited to come back, so the seaport can only send a team to participate in the tournament.
If you play the AFC Champions League with a team, in fact, it is the same as last year's AFC Cup with a team, and as the manager Chen Xufeng said at that time, it is a stage for the young people to show themselves, and it can be predicted that the young people will have a great desire to play. Only, such a lineup to play the Asian Championship, the results can be predicted. "In fact, the team to play the Asian Championship, for young people, do not think too much, enjoy the process of the game on the line." An insider said.
Since the expansion of the AFC Champions League in 2009, the worst results of the Chinese Super League group stage is that year, 4 participating teams, the group stage was annihilated. Among them, Luneng 2 wins, 1 draw and 3 negative accumulation of 7 points, the group third out; the same is the group third out of the game, there are 2 wins, 2 draws and 2 negative accumulation of 8 points of Shenhua and TEDA. Guoan is 1 win, 2 draws and 3 losses accumulated 5 points, bottom of the group out.
