Shanghai Harbor's Road to the Championship: Rough and Tumble, but Finally Brilliant
Shanghai Harbor's road to the championship has been full of ups and downs. Once leading the Chinese Super League by 14 points, they narrowly missed out on the final two rounds by just five points, and the "Battle of Heaven's Mountain" with Shandong Taishan on 29th was shattered by an on-site dispute. Nevertheless, the 1-1 draw still let the harbor generals cheered - five years later, once again won the title of Wu Lei tears, lamented: "This win is happier than the last time!"
The preparation for the championship began with the final match against Beijing Guoan. Despite the strength of the opponent, the team was confident of a home victory. The club staff secretly planned a series of responses and explained to the media the arrangements for interviews after the championship. However, the loss against Guoan put paid to all efforts.
A five-point gap should have put the title within reach, but Harbour have always been unconventional this season. No one dared to jump to conclusions before the crucial match against Taishan. "Before the game, we don't look at outside predictions and comments or the loss of the previous game, all that information is blocked out." A core defense player confessed, "Being so close to the championship, but not seizing the opportunity before, the mentality is definitely different, but before this game, we are still very determined to take it down, and we can't drag the fight to the last round."
However, the course of the match was surprisingly chaotic. In the first 30 minutes, Seaport and Taishan engaged in a fierce confrontation with exciting scenes. Zhang Linpeng's breakthrough created a shooting opportunity for Lv Wenjun, and Seaport took a 1-0 lead. The field was abuzz with excitement as they could win the title early if they kept the tie. However, after the goal, the gunpowder smell on the field intensified. 4 minutes before the end of the half, the referee showed 4 consecutive red cards, and the field was in chaos for a while. Harbour 9 were dissatisfied with Tarzan 10, and head coach Harvey also expressed his dissatisfaction.
In the second half, the strategies of the two teams were obviously different. Taishan strengthened their attack, while Seaport defended their half with one less player. Throughout the first 20 minutes of the second half, Taishan pushed all of their power into Harbor's half, with goalkeeper Wang Dalei standing near the center circle, slightly alone. It was the battle of the champions and the smell of gunpowder filled the stadium. 74 minutes in, Li Shuai shoveled the ball behind and Fernando retaliated with a foul to send him flying, also receiving a red card. 9 on 9 was also a rarity in the Chinese Super League. Throughout the match, referee Mai Maiti Jiang showed 5 red cards and 10 yellow cards.
The fans' stands were ready to celebrate after 89 minutes, but Taishan still didn't give up on the attack. The 1-1 scoreline was made even more suspenseful in the last seven minutes of extra time after Shi Ke's cross was parried by Xie Wenke. However, Yan Junling's luck finally stood in the bumpy harbor with the help of his outstanding performance and the goalpost.
Penalized in the stands, Javier frowned and kept communicating with the field on his phone. Finally, the whistle blew and he breathed a sigh of relief, excitedly waving his fist at the highest point of the stands before rushing all the way down to give high fives. It was his first Chinese Super League title amidst all the skepticism, and the first of his coaching career.
Back in the lounge, Javier enthusiastically expressed his feelings to the players. "Today was the perfect ending. We overcame all the difficulties. We showed everyone that we do our best. We are all fighters! I hope everyone enjoys this championship and the title will come back to Shanghai." He also sent his congratulations to the Chinese and foreign coaching staff and the on-site media in an excited voice. There was no champagne prepared in the lounge and the players grabbed sports drinks and sprayed them on him. Javier kept taking it all in with a smile.
Wulai was also emotional. The championship after five years made him emotional. "I feel happier about winning the title this time than last time. We players are much older than five years ago. We really wanted to win this title because the chances were getting fewer and fewer. The truth is that the first half of the season seemed to go well this year, but there were some difficulties in the middle or the second half of the season. In fact, the outside world may not know about a lot of difficulties, so we came out on top in the last key games." Vulet cried on his knees.
Wu Lei had a "direct conversation" with fans on social media, summarizing those imperfect memories. "The fans gave us a lot of support, but there were some misunderstandings and conflicts between us, but we are a family, and a family will have such and such problems, but our hearts will always be together." As the team leader, Xi Zhikang shouted "Long live the fans" at the post-match conference.
After the game, the Harbor players walked around the field with their relatives. Captain Oscar made a point of running under the fans' stands and asking for a fan's flag to wave in the center of the field. Although I didn't talk about what's next for me, Oscar had an emotional night as the hero of another Harbour win. "I've been through so much over the years. I'm glad I stuck it out. I stayed in Shanghai and won another title for the team. I love the team, I love the city."
Tonight, when the song "The First Dream" plays again on the field, "winning the championship" is as exciting as it was five years ago. It's just a season of ups and downs, and there are so many stories, whether it's the ups and downs or the questions, that are worth pondering over in the harbor.
Tears on the night of the championship, with the joy of winning a second title and the depression brought on by the many ups and downs of the second half of the league.
Based on Shanghai Seaport's record before August, their title win should not have been delayed until the penultimate round. At their peak, they were 14 points ahead of Shanghai Shenhua in second place. No one would have suspected then that they would get the title early, the suspense was only a few rounds ahead. However, since losing 3-4 at home to Zhejiang on August 12, Seaport has inexplicably put on a strange brake. They were first held to a 1-1 draw at home by Meizhou Hakka, then eliminated 2-3 in the AFC Champions League play-offs with Thai Premier League side Pathum United.
Two wins and three losses in the next five rounds of the league allowed Shandong Taishan to catch up to just five points off the points. They kept putting the brakes on, sending themselves to the penultimate round for Shandong Taishan. Pingtai Shan's win was welcome, but the four league games they lost at the start of August, especially the home match with Beijing Guoan, raised concerns about whether there were problems within this team.
When the team's performance fluctuated, there were also conflicts between player Choi Wai Hong and fans. Cai posted a friend circle of Hong Kong fans turning their backs to "check which light bulb is broken", which greatly hurt the feelings of Hong Kong fans. The incident ended with the club fining Cai Huikang. Head coach Javier is not only known for his results, but also for his frequent extreme behavior on the pitch due to his inability to control his emotions. For example, during the match with Shandong Taishan, Mai Tijiang actually knelt down after being shown a red card after entering the field in protest.
Wu Lei said "the outside world may not know a lot of difficulties" will naturally cause the outside world association. The reason for all this is that the Shanghai Group is also undergoing a change: at the beginning of August, Yan Jun, the president of the Shanghai Group, suddenly resigned from all his positions, and on August 14th, he was officially declared to be "suspected of a serious violation of discipline and the law". Since then, Harbour's record, the team's performance, and even the referees' attitude towards Harbour Club have all been in stark contrast to the past.
Another factor that should affect the harbor's performance was the indictment of Chen Xuyuan, the former chairman of the Chinese Football Association (CFA), at the end of September. Prosecution allegations clearly pointed out: "Chen Xuyuan use Shanghai international harbor (group) limited company deputy secretary of the party committee, president, party secretary, chairman of the board of directors, the Chinese football association change of the preparatory group leader, the Chinese football association deputy secretary of the party committee, the chairman of the position, as well as the position of authority formed by the convenient conditions, for others to seek benefits, illegal acceptance of other people's property. "
Two leaders of the Shanghai Group are suspected of corruption, and the final answer as to whether or not the incidents in question are related to soccer and the club needs to be given by the public security authorities. However, this situation in the Group will undoubtedly cast a shadow over the future of the Harbour Club. It is well known that since 2014, the Shanghai Group has spent a huge amount of money investing in soccer. Previously there was talk of a 12 billion dollar championship. In these years of the collapse of golden dollar soccer, the high investment in Seaport continues due to Oscar's high salary.
The outside world is also trying to figure out if there has been a change in Shanghai Group's future soccer investments after the accidents of Yan Jun and Chen Xuyuan. Shanghai Group has assigned a new party secretary and general manager Sha Changliang to the club. What is the specific strategy for future investment in soccer? The word inside Shanghai Group is that it depends on the attitude of the municipal government.
