At dusk on the 6th, the Zhejiang fighters were about to leave the Sino-Thai camp in a luxury bus, destination - Suzhou, to prepare for the upcoming double-round showdown with Qingdao in the Super League play-offs.
This tournament, which concerns the direction of the team's future season, has attracted a lot of attention from the Zhejiang team. The coaching team organized an intense training session at the Sino-Thai camp in the late afternoon of the 6th, and after completing the training, the team departed for Suzhou at 6 o'clock in the evening on time.
On the surface, this year's Qingdao team, plagued by salary arrears, seems to be easy, but in fact, the Super League team against the team in the first division of the encounter, is still hiding a huge advantage. It is reported that Qingdao will set up a "relegation bonus" for the play-offs, and acting head coach Yang Weijian said bluntly: "The only way to win the play-offs is to win." In the face of such opponents, Zhejiang team to win the Super League seat, must cross the "four difficult hurdles".
Coach Wu Jingui, who left Qingdao and coached Zhejiang, knows the two teams well. In his opinion, the pace of the Chinese Super League is tight, even if Qingdao team down a whole season, the competitive state is still outstanding. Wu Jingui analyzed: "When I was coaching Qingdao, I played the AFC Cup with Kunshan. At that time, we played with a full Chinese class and still beat the Kunshan team. The speed and skill of the Chinese Super League team is obviously better than the Chinese A team."
Qingdao finished 16th in the Chinese Super League, but played against strong teams such as Shandong Luneng, Shanghai Harbor and Guangzhou. In contrast, most of the opponents Zhejiang faced in the Chinese League A lacked foreign aid, so such a duel is obviously not enough exercise for the Zhejiang team.
How to speed up the pace of the game to adapt to the fast pace of the Chinese Super League teams is the first peak that Zhejiang needs to climb.
The second peak facing Zhejiang is that Qingdao is at its competitive best.
It's been 17 days since the last round of the league, and with most of the Chinese League One teams on vacation and the Chinese Super League teams continuing to play in the league, Zhejiang can only play warm-up matches against the U21 youth teams to keep their competitive status. In the face of the upcoming play-off opponent, head coach Qiaodi and his coaching team urgently edited Qingdao's game video, hoping to make up for the lack of form with the help of their understanding of the opponent.
The third peak for Zhejiang to overcome is physical and mental exhaustion.
This season's Central League A played a record 34 rounds, and Zhejiang's four stages of matches were played in Meizhou, which is equivalent to spending most of the whole season in Meizhou. The long duration of the tournament, coupled with consecutive matches in the same location, is indeed physically and mentally exhausting, so the team did not dare to overuse their players during the preparation for the additional matches to prevent injuries. This season's Chinese Super League has been divided into several segments, a total of 22 rounds, is also the "history of the most", Zhejiang team is obviously more tired than Qingdao team.
The fourth peak is triggered precisely by exhaustion.
Foreigner Mu Xiekui was injured before the final round of the league, and Frank also strained during the game, both of them are now training individually under the guidance of the rehabilitator. According to the current recovery situation, whether Mu Xiekui can play in the play-offs is still variable. Mu Xiekui, as the golden boot of the Central League, will undoubtedly be a big loss for Zhejiang if he is unable to play.
With heavy challenges, Zhejiang team will start their first training tomorrow in Suzhou tournament area. Both rounds of Zhejiang's play-off matches are being played at the Suzhou Olympic Sports Center, and one player said, "I've been playing in Meizhou for a season and I'm already tired of the field there, so I'll finally be able to play on a good field this time." Goalkeeper Gu Chao, who won last season's Chinese Super League title on behalf of Jiangsu Suning on this very venue, is also looking forward to passing on this good fortune to the Zhejiang team and helping them to succeed in the Super League.
