A Bumpy 2021 Season
China Super League (soccer league)
The league finally saw a restart on Thursday, and for teams like Canton, who needed to get into the tournament early to complete their fifth-round bye, they embarked on a tough schedule earlier than other teams. This Sunday, they will welcome
China Super League (soccer league)
In the sixth round, the challenge was against Chongqing Two Rivers Athletic.
In the Yu-Sui-Suizhou showdown two years ago, apart from the name change of the two teams, the lineups have also changed a lot. Now, the eight champions, who no longer have foreign aid, are facing a severe test, and whether they can at least enter the championship group has become their only challenge.
["Well prepared for a tough schedule"]
Due to the international players' early preparation for the 40-team tournament, Guangzhou's fifth round match with Henan Songshan Longmen in the first stage of the Chinese Super League was postponed, which allowed Cannavaro to leave the Closed Area Hotel early. However, plans can't catch up with changes. The break, originally expected to be one and a half months, had to be postponed until mid-July to actually end due to the change of venue for the national team's World Preliminary League match, which left Guangzhou's two rounds before and after the match as much as 67 days apart.
On the other hand, although the postponement of the Chinese Super League and the end of June the start of the Asian Championship East Asia group stage does not conflict, but due to the continued use of the tournament system outside the country, the players need to return to the country to undergo 21 days of isolation and quarantine, in order to cope with the resumption of the Chinese Super League, Guangzhou had to send a young lineup to play, and the "Tigers" tried their best, but only six consecutive defeats in the group. The "Tigers" tried their best, but could only go out with six consecutive defeats.
In response, Cannavaro said helplessly, "The most gratifying thing for me is that every player has given 100% effort, no one is negatively confronted with the game because of the results, every player is very hardworking, but there is really no way, we have to send out this kind of lineup to face the arrangement of the schedule."
Faced with a full two-month break, Cannavaro only gave the first team a few days off before regrouping at the base in mid-May to begin preparations for the Super League matches that followed. Despite the early start of preparation, the eight champions are still facing a shortage of personnel. In addition to Fernando, who withdrew from the training session early due to injury, the other six international players of the Guangzhou team were deeply involved in the final three 40 matches of the national football team, while the 11 young players who were previously promoted to the first team, some of them, like Yang Dejiang and Zhang Zhihao, were transferred to play in the U21 league and the AFC Champions League, and players such as Wang Shilong and Hou Yu were selected to the National Youth Football League at all levels. Only a dozen or so first-team players remain to train at the Panyu base.
Despite the small number of people, Kasai has been emphasizing high-intensity training, and the quality has not been reduced. Before the break, Ka Shuai had said that the team's problem was the lack of intensity in some parts of the game, so the focus in the break was also to be physically prepared enough. However, compared to the relatively favorable climate during the winter training, the entire summer training of the Guangzhou team is carried out in the high humidity and high heat of the Panyu base. A player said: this interval every day training, the equivalent of practicing another preparation period.
Guangzhou's international players also returned to the team after the end of quarantine on July 8, and were put into joint practice after a short vacation. Yan Dinghao said in the pre-match conference against Henan, "We had a warm-up match before entering the tournament, we are all in good condition and are all ready for the tough schedule."
["Rotation results are more important"]
The biggest news for Guangzhou throughout the summer has naturally been the departures of Paulinho and Talisca.
As a result of the new crown epidemic raging, stranded in Brazil for half a year, "Pota" combination, on May 18 and June 20 have to transfer and negotiate the way of termination of the contract, officially left the Guangzhou team, since then the eight champions of the team no longer have any foreign players, in the summer window to maintain the continued "only out of the not in! Since then, there is no foreign player in the eight champions team, in the summer window to maintain "only out, not in" situation, Guangzhou team also formally into the era of all Chinese class.
"Pota" combination of Guangzhou and Cannavaro, like the crutches when climbing the mountain, now the crutches have landed, the Italians can no longer count on them to return to the king, the Chinese players need to take full responsibility.
From the first stage of the first four games have been able to see, the lack of Paulinho and Talisker's Guangzhou team, in attack and defense have lost the absolute advantage of the past, but by virtue of the front of the naturalization of the trident aftermath and the individual ability of the other local players, although it is no longer the biggest favorite to compete for the title, but the Guangzhou team face the middle and lower reaches of the team still has some advantages.
Sunday 18:00 at the Galaxy Stadium to face into the difficult schedule of the second opponent Chongqing Two Rivers Athletic, in the first phase of the almost no rotation of the starting lineup of Cannavaro, also admitted that in the rhythm of three days a game must be rotated to use the players, a reasonable distribution of physical fitness, "28 days to play 10 games, the difficulty is very big, I think it is very important that the players need to be rotated or grasp the opportunity to rotate players is very important. I think it's very important to rotate players or grasp the opportunity to rotate players. We will definitely see a lot of rotation, not that we do not pay attention to the results of the game, but under the premise of ensuring the health of the players, the rotation is more important than the results of the game."
However, against the backdrop of most of the Chinese Super League teams bringing all the players on their 35-man roster to the tournament, Guangzhou is one of the teams with a smaller number of players stepping into the tournament this time around.
First of all, the young players in the list of the Guangzhou team, part of them in the isolation quarantine period after the return of the Asian Championship, the other part of the national youth training list at all levels, and then previously in the national football training and then suffered from an old strain Fernando, still need time to recover, can not participate in the game in the short term. In this regard, Cannavaro also said: "I regret the most is Fernando, I'm angry at Fernando's work, we carefully let him recover, but maybe the game task is different, the national team want to speed up to let him recover, but may be very unfortunate, and then injured." On the other hand, captain Zheng Zhi is also confirmed to be out of the first few rounds of Super League matches after the restart because he is taking a study test for the latest edition of the Football Association's Level B coaching license.
The good news is that He Chao and Zhang Xiuwei have fully recovered from their injuries, and Li Xuepeng and Luo Guofu, who have been recovering from injuries for a long time, are also close to coming back, which will allow Cannavaro to have more space to choose from in terms of his lineup. In the first 4 matches of the first phase, the Italian maintained a combination of a hardcore four defenders and three midfielders in his lineup choices, and when entering the tough schedule, we will also have a high probability to see a different formation presented by the Guangzhou team out of the need for rotation.
Due to the change in the system, the last Yu Sui battle dates back to August 2019, that time Chongqing 1-1 away draw just into the low period of the Guangzhou team, indirectly leading to the aftermath of the Kasha Shuai "class" clouds present. After two years to meet again, the two teams are no longer at the peak of the lineup, for the first four rounds of only two wins in the eight champions, the first phase of the completion of the group into the title contention is necessary to complete the minimum goal, and the immediate three points is what they must take.
