Only one draw and four losses in five matches, the performance of the all Chinese team is worrying.
In a tightly contested match, Shandong Taishan, with their rich match experience and deep bench thickness, struggled to snatch three points with a thrilling victory in their first match against promotion rivals Zhejiang. Meanwhile, Changchun Yatai's defensive counter-attacking tactics became more and more masterful, and they finished with almost zero points conceded in their showdown with Guangzhou City. Wuhan Sanzhen, on the other hand, thrashed Hebei 4-0. As the team that invested the most in the winter transfer market, Sanzhen's continued investment seems to have been rewarded with instant fighting power. They seem to have the ability to influence the league's championship this season.
The three teams that are currently considered to be strong all have one common feature, which is to have a complete foreign aid lineup. Despite experiencing the ebb of gold dollar soccer, the Chinese Super League still hasn't gotten rid of the situation of relying on foreign aid. High-level foreign aid is still the key to a team's strength. In contrast, in the first round of the league, the five teams that played with full Chinese classes had only 1 draw and 4 losses, including even the traditional strong team Shanghai Harbor. In the match against Wuhan Changjiang, although the harbor team played with full Chinese class, they still lost against the opponent with three foreign aiders.
Guangzhou City and Hebei were almost unable to make effective substitutions against opponents with a full complement of foreign aiders. Guangzhou showed a certain level of athleticism but ended up losing to luck against Shenhua, who had a single foreign aid. The only team that became the biggest highlight of the first round of the Chinese Super League was the Dalian Ren, led by Xie Hui, who drew with the powerful Henan Songshan Longmen. However, the season is long and the final victory depends not only on the performance of one or two games, but also on the depth and comprehensive strength of the team. Trying to rely on the full Chinese class to support the whole season is as difficult as reaching the sky.
Four Red Cards Reveal Local Players' Theoretical Shortcomings
In the first round of the Chinese Super League 9 matches, the referee showed 4 red cards, players red became a major focus of the first round of the league. It is worth noting that all four red cards fell on local players, while foreign players seem to have a more accurate grasp of the Chinese Super League referee's scale of punishment.
There is an outside view that the frequent occurrence of red cards in the Chinese Super League is due to the Chinese Football Association (CFA) requiring referees to be strict in their enforcement. However, this is not the case and it is only a misunderstanding of the matter. Before the league kicked off, the CFA invited Yao Qing, a former international referee, to give a lecture to the media, analyzing the adjustments to the FIFA penalty rules, with a focus on penalties and red and yellow card penalties. According to Yao Qing's explanation, Zheng Zheng, Xu Xin and Zhang Chengdong's actions, under the latest rules, are absolutely straight red actions. Guo Hao's "reckless jumping towards the opponent and causing unnecessary injury to the opponent" turned two yellows into one red, which is also fully in line with the spirit of the latest FIFA rules for penalties. With the help of VAR, the four red cards were awarded without error.
The root cause of the frequent red card, or local players on the soccer penalty rules are not deep enough understanding. Some insiders in the evening of the 5th to Sohu Sports said, "many players are completely based on experience to play soccer, that I did not kick this action hurt, the referee will not show a red card, in fact, they do not understand the spirit of the latest penalties. Waiting for a red card, and then will think that the referee is targeted."
