Exclusive report by Jia Yanfeng: Shanghai Shenhua beat Qingdao Hainiu 1-0 on the road and jumped to the second place in the table, with a record of 7 wins, 4 draws and 1 loss, accumulating 25 points. The team, which does not have a luxurious lineup and is backed by young talent, has a record that is not easy to achieve and deserves to be written about.
In preparation for the international tournament, Shenhua sent seven players to the Asian Games, including Wen Jiabao, Zhu Chenjie and Jiang Shenglong, who will report for duty during the Asian Games. The Asian Games schedule has two warm-up matches scheduled, on June 15 and 19, against the South Korean U24 team in Jinhua.
Shenhua didn't have a smooth start to the season, suffering setbacks and lows, but they were always able to adjust their form quickly. In 12 rounds of league games, Shenhua accumulated 18 points with 6 1-0 records. Head coach Wu Jingui said that this is the crystallization of the players' hard work and good luck, but Shenhua's 67% winning rate on the road is not only by luck.
Even with the loss against Qingdao Hainiu, the match statistics show that Hainiu performed well, even slightly better in terms of offense and ball control. Shenhua won the game with goals from foreigner Malelai and solid defense, with limited scoring ability from the front line, but a great performance from the defense.
Qingdao Sea Cowboys are at the bottom of the league with only 8 points in the first 11 rounds, while Shenhua is at the third place with 22 points. Sea Bulls were eager for a win and improved their ball possession, but Shenhua's offense was more efficient.
The problems of the Manatees are obvious: firstly, the foreign aid is average in skill and lacks the ability to break through; secondly, facing the aggressive defense of Shenhua, there is a single means of attack and frequent passing errors. If you can not adjust the foreign aid in the interval, this season's relegation pressure will be very huge.
Although there is not much difference between the two teams in terms of paper strength, Qingdao Sea Cow is obviously lacking in stability and clinical mentality. Shenhua won 1-0 in 6 matches, while Hainiu lost 0-1 in the last 4 rounds of matches, which fully proved their inadequacy.
With national training and the Asian Games approaching, Shenhua will face more challenges. What Wu Jingui's guidance needs to address is how to fill the void left by the departure of international players. Shenhua scored only three goals against Shamrocks and one goal in the remaining 11 matches, defense is the key to the team's scoring.
