Tri-Town launched a premature onslaught, and the outside world mistakenly thought they were on the verge of a big win. But the truth was far from it. Dalian nearly broke through at the end of the first half, when a shot that hit the crossbar almost gave them the win, and the close call came from a mistake by goalkeeper Liu Dengzuo, who has made such mistakes more than once this season.
In the second half, Tri-Town attacked and replaced defender Wallace with Davidson, a substitution decision clearly intended to strengthen the offense. However, the Brazilian player, who has been injured for a long time, was not in good form and the attacking rhythm was disrupted as he was cut off on several occasions. Throughout the game, Tri-Town had 64% possession of the ball, but hit 4 of only 16 feet of shots. Edmilson and Aziz missed many opportunities to score, and the team's shot conversion rate was in question. It should be remembered that last season, San Zhen scored six goals in two games against Dalian Ren, when Dalian Ren had a strong lineup and Malcolm scored six goals, but now San Zhen has no one to pick up the slack.
Since the start of the tournament, Sanzhen has played six home games without a single win: 0-2 against Harbor, 1-1 against Guoan, 0-0 with Zhejiang, 3-3 with Chengdu Rongcheng, 1-1 with Shandong Taishan, and 0-0 with Dalian Ren. 5 draws and 1 loss announced that the team had bid farewell to the title race, and the curse of an undefeated home record seems to be weighing firmly on the minds of Sanzhen's players. The more time passes, the heavier the pressure becomes. The longer it goes on, the heavier the pressure becomes, and the fewer the chances to catch their breath. At the moment, I'm afraid it will take some time to see when this heavy stone will be removed.
Although the saying "a change of manager is like a change of sword" is widely rumored, the change of manager in Sanzhen has not brought significant changes in the Chinese Super League. Dalian is currently at the bottom of the league, failing to beat the vice-champion, which is undoubtedly a big blow to the team's morale. The new head coach Takabatake is obviously facing a lot of tricky problems that need to be solved one by one.
