Shanghai Harbour hosted former Thai Premier League No. 9 rivals Pathum United and lost 2-3, a result that certainly casts a shadow over Chinese soccer. The experience of watching this AFC Champions League match made me deeply worried about the prospect of China's men's soccer team being able to qualify for the 36-team tournament in the preliminary round.
The Chinese men's soccer team will be playing in the same group as the Thai men's soccer team in the preliminaries. Although Thailand is ranked 113th by FIFA, I'm increasingly worried about the Chinese team's prospects, especially after this AFC Champions League play-off match.
In this clash, Shanghai Harbour's starting lineup contains six Chinese players, with Yan Junling in goal, Jiang Guangtai, Stanley Wang, Zhang Linmiao and Xu Xin in the center back, and Wu Lei up front. Pathum United, on the other hand, fielded six Thai-born players, with Buttpong in goal, Thumkul, Yorn, Prasuwan and Songkrasin in the center back and Dangda up front.
I can't help but wonder if Coach Javier is over-trusting his homegrown players or if he intends to go all out in the Super League in three days' time. Harbour only used double foreigners Oscar and Lucas João in this game, while Pinko, Vargas and Caron were all on the bench. However, the actual result was far from the expectation. The local players looked out of their depth in the attacking end, failing to effectively suppress their opponents, but instead putting the midfield under immense pressure and ultimately leaving the defense full of holes.
The first time Harbor conceded a goal occurred the moment Xu Xin made a mistake with the ball in midfield and was cut off.
Baton Rouge opened the door to victory with just a simple pick and roll. I couldn't figure out why buy Tijiang suddenly slowed down when he clearly had a chance to steal the ball. Why couldn't Xu Xin keep up when Dangda, who was carrying the ball at the time, wasn't Bell? Does Sergeyev need four defenders to guard him?
Yan Junling's positional choice as the national team's starting goalkeeper has also caused controversy. In fact, Zhang Linmiao's defense has basically blocked the far corner, Sergeyev is only left to defend the near corner, but Yan Junling can not effectively defend. No wonder he was teased by fans as the "Regent". As a professional goalkeeper, he should not have missed the near corner.
Zhang Linmiao was also to blame for Harbour's second goal conceded. After Sung Klaasin's outswinging pass looped over him, he stopped like Fu Huan back in the day, not realizing that Sergeyev behind him would be able to add to the score.
Stanley Wong repeated the same mistake of the national soccer team's left back in the right back position. Faced with the onslaught of "Thai Messi" Sung Klaasin and Japan's fast horse Jun Ito, Stanley Wong was humiliated twice in just one minute, which eventually led to the loss of the ball.
The three goals scored by Pathum United were not scored by Thai players, but none of them could have been scored without the direct involvement and planning of Sonkrasin and Dangda. The national team's starting goalkeeper and center back players are almost all Harbour's starters, plus Zhu Chenjie and Wu Xi at most.
After this AFC Champions League match, I believe that the mood of many national soccer fans has become heavy. None of the main players of the harbor team played well, even the striker Wu Lei failed to make a difference. As the main striker of the national team, why would you kick a goal scoring opportunity to the goalkeeper instead of shooting to the sides of the goal at a crucial moment?
Every time, Lei always shoots, covers his mouth and holds his head, a scene that makes the fans heartbroken.
