On September 1, the 12th round of the Super League bye was in full swing, and Guangzhou suffered a 0-3 defeat on the road against Zhejiang, losing two consecutive matches.
After new head coach Zheng Zhi took over, Guangzhou's performance has not been as strong as expected, with only one win and one draw in four matches, and two losses in the remaining two. Up to now, Guangzhou has 3 wins, 1 draw and 12 losses in 16 matches, accumulating 10 points and ranking 16th in the table, still in the relegation zone.
On the eve of the upcoming face of Zhejiang, the Guangzhou team officially released a poster with the tagline, "All the gods return to their positions, Guangzhou team guardian league assembled!" In the poster, the players are dressed in battle robes, with firm expressions and full of confidence.
After the poster was released, fans speculated, "Can the Guardians guard the Guangzhou team?"
On August 31, Guangzhou officially announced that five new players have been added to the first-team roster, including No. 10 Zheng Zhi, No. 9 Huang Bowen, No. 43 Zhang Chenglin, No. 46 Artemisia Junmin, and No. 40 Tan Kaiyuan.
The announcement of this news, not only means that Artemis joins, but also reminiscent of the movie "the head coach is warming up" in the movie "the richest man in the rainbow city", seems to indicate that the Guangzhou team is about to usher in a new change.
On August 12, Guangzhou team away 1-2 defeat Chengdu Rongcheng, the next day, Guangzhou team officially announced the change of manager, the appointment of Zheng Zhi as the first team head coach, Liu Zhiyu as the club ladder team head coach.
"I hope that all coaches, athletes and staff, with a strong sense of honor, responsibility and teamwork, overcome all difficulties, train hard, work hard, and go all out to complete the season." Zheng Zhi said so at the meeting.
At the same time, the Guangzhou team coaching staff has been adjusted, former Guangzhou team meritorious players Huang Bowen and Mei Fang became assistant coaches, 18, former Guangzhou team player Zhang Chenglin joined the coaching staff as a physical fitness coach.
On the 27th, joined the Zhejiang half a year Rong Hao back to the Guangzhou team, 31st, the first half of the former national football team captain did not register, studying in Huazhong University of Science and Technology Artemisia to join, the Evergrande peak period of the bitter pursuit of international players, at the age of 35 years old finally joined the Guangzhou team.
The failure of the Evergrande football school players Tan Kaiyuan has also been enrolled, coupled with the second transfer window to report Zhang Xiuwei and Li Xuepeng, the Guangzhou team can form a "quasi ex-national football national team".
After the announcement of the official player list of the Guangzhou team, fans left a message under the official microblogging: "Guangzhou team is so difficult this year, this group of people unhesitatingly come back to help, by virtue of a passion and moral righteousness, really touched."
There are also fans lamented: "After all, it's still this group of men who carry all." Zheng Zhi, on the other hand, said: "The past glory of the Guangzhou team is created by me and other old players together, regardless of active or retired Guangzhou players, we all have a deep affection for this team and this city, we miss the past time, and now the return of us are voluntary, so the other veteran players are very quick when I step in and invite them to come back. "
Factory Hengtai
In February, Xu Jiayin went to the club to convene the Evergrande soccer management meeting, at which he said, "Evergrande should continue to do a good job in soccer unswervingly, and do its best to contribute to the development and rise of Chinese soccer in a solid manner."
Lao Xu also said that according to the requirements of the group, "Evergrande Football School should be built into the cradle of Chinese soccer stars, and Guangzhou team should be a good cradle platform", to open up the road of talent cultivation from the football school to the club, and to practically realize "soccer from the beginning of the child", and to deliver excellent young talents in one batch and one batch, and to contribute to the revitalization of Chinese football. A batch of excellent young talents, out of a club and football school self-blood-creation, virtuous cycle of the new road, for the revitalization of Chinese soccer contribution.
We all thought that the old Xu burnt out, has not forgotten that he has been shouting for more than 10 years "revitalize China's soccer", but also has a beginning and an end.
And 3 days before that meeting, Guangzhou club issued a notice within the soccer club players set and salary standards, clear first-team players, the highest pre-tax salary of 600,000 per year, and a maximum of only 3 people, and the starting salary line of first-team players for pre-tax 60,000 per year.
May 2, Guangzhou team 2022 season first team list came out, 35 people in the list, 29 people from the Evergrande football school, the average age of the first team is 21.12 years old, the youngest Guangzhou team, but also the history of the youngest Super League team, but also the old Xu said many times before the realization of the "all Chinese class", finally realized.
Ten years ago, Hui Kayan said: Evergrande will be the strongest, the most envied and the most respected "three most clubs".
Nowadays, "Guangzhou Evergrande" is becoming "Factory Hengtai".
Guangzhou, who sent a reserve team to the AFC Champions League, lost 0-8 to Kawasaki Frontale, creating a record for the worst loss by a Chinese Super League team in the AFC Champions League, and breaking the record for the longest losing streak in the AFC Champions League previously held by a Vietnamese team.
In the 2nd round of the Chinese Super League (CSL), Guangzhou lost 0-6 to promotion horse Wuhan Sanzhen, tying the record for the largest score loss in the history of Guangzhou's CSL, and also the worst loss since Evergrande took over Guangzhou's soccer.
On the 2nd day after 0-6, Zheng Zhi, who is an associate professor at the Guangzhou Sports Institute Football Academy, spoke as a representative of the undergraduate faculty of the Guangzhou Sports Institute Football Academy in a speech at the 2022 graduation ceremony of the Guangzhou Sports Institute 2022.
"Looking back on my career, I did have some achievements, but what is more unforgettable to me is some regrets left on the field." Zheng Zhi said so in his speech.
After being reversed by Chengdu, the Guangzhou club couldn't sit still and met to discuss bringing back Zheng Zhi, which Xu Jiayin immediately agreed to.
Zheng Zhi said Xu Jiayin personally approached him to talk about it: "When the boss talked to me, he also hoped that I could use my experience to help this young team get on the right track as soon as possible."
Enjoying soccer
Guangzhou won 2 of their first 12 matches in the Super League against a similarly unbeaten all Chinese team in Hebei.
Zheng Zhi said, "Whether it is from the personnel structure or playing style, or the content of the game presented, I do not think it should be this current points, position, I think it does not match the efforts of the players. Previously, Guangzhou team has been performing strongly, but now because of the loss of many main players, from the law of soccer is the current performance, but does not mean that this team has no potential."
Once again coaching Guangzhou team for the first time, the face of the former boss Li Zhangsu led the Shenzhen team, Li Zhangsu is very optimistic about Zheng Zhi: "I privately and Zheng Zhi talked about the past and the present, he is a player I have brought three years, in all aspects of the character is very good, I believe that he in the head coaching position will also achieve good results."
4-1, Wei Shihao scored two world waves, Yang Liyu scored a goal, Guangzhou team once again completed the "minimum spending".
Zheng Zhi on the sidelines clenched his fists and lifted his arms in celebration as Guangzhou fans lamented, "It's all back!"
As the team's technical director, Fu Bo said in the press conference after the game: "Back to the locker room, Zheng Zhi encouraged the players, Zheng Zhi and other members of the coaching staff to return, for the young players itself is a kind of activation, some players have seen them play, some players are with these old players played together, and now re-work together, that kind of closeness, that kind of common struggle feeling that The feeling of closeness, the feeling of working together, motivates everyone on the team. Working together is more intimate, and I feel that I have returned to the past Evergrande feeling. feeling, everyone together to fight together, very good."
In the 2nd match, Guangzhou drew 0-0 with the pressing Dalian people, and Xie Hui gave Zheng Zhi a high evaluation after the match.
"I'm very happy to see Dazhi, although we didn't stay in the national team for a long time in '05, we played a lot of matches, and we also played in the East Asian quarterfinals. The game with Germany, he stuffed the ball very beautiful. Hopefully (this kind of) mid-generation coach, in fact, a little late, should have given him a chance. I hope all walks of life will give us more support. I think he's done a very good job, just one week in total, the whole team's outlook, not only the spirit, but also the way of playing. They play very determined, Guangzhou is still a very promising team."
The latter two games were a 1-2 defeat on the road against No. 3 Henan and a 0-3 defeat against No. 6 Zhejiang.
Although suffered consecutive losses, but these two games Guangzhou team created quite a lot of chances, against Henan has 7 times, against Zhejiang has 9 times, as Xie Hui said Guangzhou team's spirit has completely changed, they are no longer a scattered sand.
Zheng Zhi said: "When the boss communicated with me, he repeatedly emphasized the spirit and cohesion formed by the Guangzhou team in the past. Now Chinese soccer is not only a team facing difficulties, in times of difficulty, it is more necessary for all of us Chinese footballers to work hard to support. Difficulty is not resistance, now these young players inside the team are basically grown up from childhood watching our group of old players get honors for the team, we have the responsibility to let them pass on."
After the return, Zheng Zhi and young players said the most is "enjoy soccer": "First of all to do to enjoy the joy of soccer, every game should be full of confidence to face, regardless of how the results."
Guangzhou is in 16th place, but the points gap with the previous teams is not big, Changchun Yatai 19 points, Tianjin Jinmen Tiger 19 points, Wuhan Changjiang 17 points, Shenzhen 16 points, Dalian people 15 points, Cangzhou Xiongshi 12 points, by no means no chance to catch up.
And don't forget that Zheng Zhi, Huang Bowen, Zhang Chenglin and Artemisia Junmin in the "Guardian League" have yet to make their debut!
Asked if he was worried about his lack of relegation experience as a coach, Zheng humored him:
"It's not as if I don't actually have relegation experience, I went through it in the Premier League back in the day."
