In 2023, Sichuan soccer will see unprecedented glory: Chengdu Rongcheng is sitting at the top of the league, striving for the team's first AFC Champions League berth, and Lionel Messi is about to set foot on this land again... Just yesterday, Sichuan Jiuniu beat Wuxi Wuhu 4-0 in the 27th round of the Central League, leading the third-placed team by 12 points in the Nanjing city table, and locking up the Super League seat three rounds ahead of schedule with only three rounds of matches left.
Established only seven years, Sichuan Jiuniu successful Super League, marking the first time in the history of Sichuan soccer has two Super League teams, but also declared the end of Sichuan in the Football Association registered prefix teams for 17 consecutive years without access to the Super League.
Text/Song Xinyu
Editor/Yinhang
We are in the trough, but someone is looking up to the stars. In the darkest moments, there is always someone who shines as bright as a star, like the last glimmer of light in the night.
-- Wilde
Chengdu Rongcheng is undoubtedly a shining star in the Chinese soccer landscape in the 2023 season. As a second-year newcomer, Chengdu Rongcheng has achieved outstanding results in the Chinese Super League for two consecutive years, and the light show of 10,000 people after the match at Phoenix Hill Stadium has made Chengdu Rongcheng's name famous. The sight of thousands of people grabbing tickets, which were hard to find, brought back memories of the former glory of Sichuan soccer. The title of the golden soccer market resounded once again.
However, for many senior Sichuan fans, they have never witnessed the famous team of Sichuan crowned with a crown. Once Chengdu Quanxing and Sichuan team, the yellow color belonging to Quanxing and Sichuan, for a long time, can only serve as a brilliant background in the memory of countless fans.
Without a river, there is no army.
For Sichuan fans, the dream season of 1994 was the starting point of their dreams. In China's first professional soccer league, Sichuan Quanxing set off a yellow wild, the stadium full of scenes to make the gold medal of Sichuan soccer market fame, the call of the rise of the great north and south of the Yangtze River.
After All Saints' glorious 1994, they were in relegation trouble the following season. The golden goal scored by Zhai Biao in the final round of the tournament brought a fan named Shen Lixin to tears in the stands of the Chengdu Sports Center. The photo has become one of the classics kept on the CCTV soccer channel, and the defense of Chengdu has become a timeless classic in Chinese soccer.
According to the official data of the Football Association that year, the total number of spectators for the 11 home games that year amounted to 442,000 people. Even in the history of Chinese soccer, this is an amazing number, which can be called a miracle.
From then on, Sichuan soccer had their golden era until the 2001 A-B Five Rats incident and Quanxing's announcement of withdrawal. In fact, the last three years of the Quanxing era were also the peak of Sichuan soccer. 1999, under the leadership of Tavares, Sichuan soccer led for seven consecutive weeks and was just one step away from reaching the top throne, finishing in third place.
However, with the intervention of the real Germany system, the loss of Sichuan football characteristics of Sichuan soccer began a 17-year-long period of turbulence, all the way down, and never looked back. Some people so summarize the year's Sichuan football: people often say that the experience of Sichuan football in these years can be summarized in three words: from the beginning of the tall building, entertaining guests, the tall building collapsed. I say, the building did not collapse, the building itself does not belong to you, nor should it belong to anyone. The plundering of us by the Dalian people and the weakness of the Chuanzhong enterprises are destined to be plundering.
