In a passionate duel on the Shanghai Tang, Shanghai Harbour beat Shanghai Shenhua 6-1, so as to meet Shandong Taishan in the final of the FA Cup.The FA Cup regular season, which was whistled on October 13, has come to an end in stages, and a decisive final will be staged at the beginning of the next year. In this next ten days, China's soccer will enter the time of the national team. In the early hours of yesterday morning, Beijing time, the national football team departed again to Sharjah, United Arab Emirates to prepare for the upcoming World Preliminary League Asian Zone 12 matches against Oman and Australia. After a long off-season, the Chinese Super League may restart in mid-December. In this extraordinary season, the stability advantage of each club is more and more prominent.
"King of the Cup" is the name of the game.
In the second round of the semi-final of the FA Cup the day before yesterday, Shandong Taishan beat Henan Songshan Longmen 4-2 with goals from Liu Yang and Delgado, advancing to the final with a total score of 5-2. Since the professionalization of soccer in China, the F.A.C. Cup has been held for a total of 23 times, and Shandong Taishan entered the final for 12 times and won the championship for 6 times. In the last four seasons, Shandong Taishan has made it to the final every year, deservedly the king of the cup.
However, Shandong Taishan boss Hao Wei is not satisfied with the team's performance in the AFC Cup, "not as good as the league kick, can only say stumbling".
Injury-plagued "scrappy" team advances
In the six major main force to support the national team, Shandong Taishan in the F.A.C.A. Cup and suffered injuries, especially in the second round of the semifinals, the starting 11 in addition to the goalkeeper, the remaining 10 people in the seven defenders, many part-time midfield, the captain of the Zheng Zheng is rare to play the back of the waist, and only three foreigners are responsible for the attack. But Delgado contributed 6 goals in 4 games, and 1 assist and 1 planning goal, to help Shandong Taishan rely on this set of "residual lineup" into the AFC Cup final. It is worth mentioning that in the 5 games before the second round of the semi-finals, Shandong scored 8 goals without conceding 1, becoming the only team that did not concede a goal. Shandong Taishan relied on stability to reach the AFC Cup final.
Shandong Taishan in a two-front war
After the end of the AFC Cup, Hao Wei said that the team will make short-term adjustments to prepare for the second stage of the Chinese Super League. As the leader of the first stage of the league, Shandong Taishan's goal is of course the double championship.
A number of Chinese Super League teams are facing difficulties this season. Guangzhou, despite being promoted to the league's championship group as the second team in the division, has yet to formally assemble after the parent company suffered a crisis, and the selection of a first-team manager has yet to be announced. Hebei, which made a "dark horse leap" in the first phase of the league, announced in late October that the club had gone on strike due to financial difficulties. Whether these two teams will be able to appear in the second phase of the Super League as scheduled is still unknown. Even if the team traveled, but the hearts of the people have long been disorganized, Guangzhou team to talk about how to compete for the title, Hebei team is also difficult to play again to stir up the dark horse.
Among the eight teams in the championship group, Beijing Guoan, who played the first stage with a single foreign aid, has welcomed a new recruit, but still cannot be compared with the team with a full complement of foreign aid. The strong football team also has the ambition to compete for the title, in order to better prepare for the next stage of the league, the core of the midfield Jin Tro has returned in advance. But from the first stage of the league and the performance of the FA Cup, the deep football is not short of players, the lack of overall integration and championship temperament.
According to the original plan, the league will resume in mid-December and last until early January of the following year. The final of the AFC Cup will be held after the end of the Chinese Super League, with one game to decide the winner. Shandong Taishan and Shanghai Harbor will undoubtedly become the focus of the double line on the way to the championship.
Shandong Taishan and Shanghai Seaport did not meet in the Chinese Super League this season, but led their respective divisions. However, Shandong Taishan has 33 points from 10 wins, 3 draws and 1 loss, which is higher than Shanghai Seaport's 28 points from 8 wins, 4 draws and 2 losses. Looking at both sides' records, Shanghai Seaport is clearly an easier opponent to deal with than the Guangzhou side. From the performance of the AFC Cup, Shandong Taishan scored 12 goals in 6 matches, and the front line was blossoming. On the contrary, Shanghai Seaport relies too much on Oscar. It is worth noting that the last 8 rounds of matches will be played in 24 days after the restart of the league due to the national football team's trip to the west again. The high-intensity devil schedule will once again test the teams' personnel reserves, which is where Taishan's strength lies. Hao Wei will have more choices in the next lineup when the national players return.
On the road to the two-line struggle for supremacy, Shandong Taishan is afraid to have more advantages than Shanghai seaport.
the national team
Mental conditioning is as important as technical and tactical
The first four rounds of the World Qualifying Asian Zone 12, after 48 days of closed training and games in West Asia, Li Tie is eager for the fifth and sixth rounds to be able to really usher in a home game. However, these two rounds will still be played in West Asia.
Lost home again, Li Tie in an exclusive interview with Xinhua News Agency frankly admitted that this result let many players have a large psychological fluctuations. "Our biggest difficulty during this time is to do the thought work of the players, each player thinks of something different, the ability to adjust is also different. None of us have experienced this kind of work, and I can only think of ways to give the players some help through my previous knowledge. I have been telling the players that this is something they have to go through, and they can only adjust themselves positively." Li Tie said.
Before the second trip to the west, the national team carried out a "diet", Guo Tianyu, Wei Shihao, Wang Shangyuan, Yin Hongbo due to family reasons to leave the team, Gao Zhunyi also due to injury and illness did not travel with the team. the end of August before the initial trip to West Asia, Zheng Zheng was due to family matters and failed to travel with the team. This time, when some international players took a leave of absence due to their respective family matters, the national team considered from a humane perspective and did not force them to travel with the team to the west again.
"Speaking as a coach, I would like to bring all the players to Sharjah together. Guo Tianyu and all four of them are there for extremely special family reasons, not because I am not satisfied with the training attitude of certain players or they are not qualified to represent the national team. The team has also been communicating with the players that family is extremely important to everyone, and I can only respect their choices, and it is also necessary for me to protect the privacy of the players." Li Tie said.
Before the trip on November 3, the national football team divided into two sets of lineups respectively with the deep football and Zhejiang team played two warm-up matches, respectively to 3-0, 2-1 win. Li Tie revealed that Wang Dalei and Gao Junyi were both injured in the warm-up matches, with Gao Junyi's injury being more serious and unable to catch up with the later two matches, and Wang Dalei's injury requiring three to five days to recover. "In fact, he could have chosen not to go to Sharjah due to his injury, but when we consulted the player, he expressed a strong desire to play with the coaching staff, saying that as long as he could contribute to the national team, he would be willing to go to training even if it was just for training. This emotion of the player made me very happy." Li Tie said.
Previously, there was news that the national football team will make up the recruitment of Zheng Zheng and Ji Xiang, but Li Tie responded, "We have thought about making up the recruitment of other players, but because many of the Chinese Super League teams are on vacation, the players do not have a good condition, the choice becomes very limited. The only feasible thing is to select from the teams participating in the AFC Cup, but we have to think for the club and at the same time understand the physical condition of the players."
In the first four rounds, the national soccer team has 1 win and 3 losses with 3 points and is in the bottom two of the group. To keep the hope of getting out of the World Cup, the fifth round of the game with Oman is crucial. Li Tie said he is not going to think about the points situation at this stage. "From my point of view, it's all about facing reality, putting yourself down and fighting every opponent."
After playing these two rounds of matches, the international players will return to the country, after the implementation of the "14 + 7" immigration isolation policy, rest for three or four days, the international players will return to the club to enter the closed area to participate in the second phase of the Super League competition, which lasts until early January next year. After the Chinese Super League "devil schedule", the international players will be gathered for the next year on January 27 and February 1 of the two 12 matches to prepare for the game.
This particular 12-team tournament, the international players in the technical and tactical preparation for the battle, psychological conditioning is crucial.
