With the opening match on the 20th, the new season of the Chinese Super League officially started, and the drums of the Central League A will also be sounded on April 24th. Due to the expansion of the 2022 season of the Chinese Super League, the promotion quota of this year's Chinese A League has been adjusted to 2+0.5+0.5, which means that the top four teams have the possibility of impacting the Chinese Super League. Among the 18 teams in the Chinese A League, which team has the strongest desire to reach the Super League? Which team can have the strength of the super?
Missing out on replacement: Zhejiang still the biggest stealer
Zhejiang team is undoubtedly the most special existence in the 2021 season of the Central League. They received a notice from the CFA that they were ready to be promoted to the Chinese Super League, but due to the stunning comeback of the Tianjin Jinmen Tigers, Zhejiang sadly missed out on the Super League. However, Zhejiang is still the favorite to make it to the Super League in the new season. 2020 season, the team finished the season in second place in the Central League, and could have made it directly to the Super League if not for the change in the relegation quota to 1.5 due to the epidemic. Despite having to play a play-off due to the rule change, and ultimately losing out to Wuhan, the Zhejiang team is still fully committed to preparing for the game.
Zhejiang's preparations are strictly in accordance with the Chinese Super League standard, with the introduction of strong players such as Yao Junsheng, Gao Di and Gu Chao in terms of internal reinforcements, as well as Hong Kong player Leung Noi Hang and local players Cheng Jin, Long Cheng and Long Wei. However, the team's biggest problem at the moment is the introduction of foreign aid, despite the fact that they have been in contact with many foreign aiders since the end of last year, and even had the star of the Russian World Cup finalists throwing out olive branches, the new foreign aiders have never been able to get in place. Until the last day before the transfer window closed, Zhejiang team finally signed Serbian foreign aid Djurdjic. In the first phase of the game, the team only has Djurdjic and Mu Xiekui two foreign aid available.
Strong draw: all three teams are possibilities
In the 2020 season, Chengdu Rongcheng finished fourth in the Central League, showing strong strength. This season, Chengdu Rongcheng's goal to reach the Super League is very clear, so they continue to make efforts in attracting reinforcements. They retained last season's foreign aid Leonor, and brought in former Shandong Taishan veteran Jonathan and South Korea's Romulo. At the same time, the team also brought in 14 local players, including Liu Ruofan and Yang Zexiang from Shanghai Shenhua and Liu Chaoyang from Shandong Taishan. The new head coach is South Korean coach Seo Jung-won, who has coached at South Korean K-League giants Suwon Samsung and the South Korean national team, winning the K-League runner-up spot twice.
Kunshan FC has been impressively playing against Chinese Super League teams almost all the time in preparation for the new season. Kunshan, who finished third in last season's Central League, has certainly shown the determination and strength to make it to the Super League. Gao Yao continues to coach Kunshan with stable coaching results, retaining foreign aid Berto and bringing in 11 internal reinforcements for the new season, including naturalized player Xiao Tao Tao from Guangzhou and superb scorer Xu Jun Min from Nantong Zhiyun. The team's player configuration is very good, goalkeeper Peng Peng, defender Cui Peng, midfielder Ruan Yang, Wang Jiajie and other performances are also very good, and striker Zhu Zhengrong is also worth looking forward to.
Wuhan Sanzhen, as a promoted team in the Central League, has become the favorite to overtake the Super League because they have made a lot of moves in the transfer market. The team brought in a total of 19 new recruits during the winter window, including 3 foreigners and 16 internal recruits. As for the foreigners, Brazilian center back Jadson, Brazilian striker Edmilson and Nigerian/Swedish striker Ogbu are all powerful players. As for the internal backers, Ren Hang, Liu Yiming and Luo Senwen are all well-known players in the Chinese Super League. Together with local players such as Deng Zhuoxiang and Sang Yifei, Wuhan Sanzhen has reached the top level of the Central League in terms of player configuration, making it the favorite to overtake the Super League.
Based on the above analysis, Zhejiang, Chengdu Rongcheng and Kunshan FC are all three teams that have the potential to advance to the Chinese Super League.
Cautious about the Super League: Meizhou Hakka fights for the top four
As in previous years, Meizhou Hakka prepared for the new season as early as possible, and they assembled at their base - Wuhua Hengpi Soccer Town - on January 4 to start winter training. Not only the winter training time is early, the attraction of coaching and reinforcement work is also quite rapid. The new head coach is Milan Ristic from Serbia. In terms of foreign players, Guinea center forward Dumbya and Nigerian striker Gissen, who performed well last season, were retained, and Brazilian foreigner Igor Shatoni was introduced. Among the six new additions of domestic players are Hong Kong's Laureus, Lu Lin and Gui Hong who played for Guangzhou City last season.
Although Tang Shi has not been officially announced, but from the Meizhou Hakka released the new season family photo and jersey, Tang Shi will wear the No. 21 jersey on behalf of the Meizhou Hakka. Last season, Tang Shi wore the No. 10 jersey of the North Sports University, and became the team's deserved midfield core, in addition to the front waist and back, but also occasional cameo in the shadow striker and side forward, both to organize the team's attack, but also in the defense to retreat to a very backward position. Most of the team's set-pieces are penalized by Tang Shi. Tang Shi's arrival will strengthen Meizhou Hakka's midfield.
In preparation for the season, Meizhou Hakka played more than 10 warm-up matches with Chinese Super League teams such as Guangzhou People, Guangzhou City, Wuhan Zhuoer and Shenzhen Football, and Chinese League One teams such as Shenyang City. Through the series of matches, head coach Milan's tactical system around Dumbya has basically taken shape, and the main and rotation lineups have basically surfaced, and it makes sense that Liang Xuming, Guo Yi, Shi Liang, Yang Yihu, and Laureus have become absolute mainstays.
This season's Central League adopts a four-stage double round-robin system, playing all 34 rounds (10 rounds + 8 rounds + 8 rounds + 8 rounds), with total points determining the season's Central League standings after all the matches have been completed. The champion and runner-up advance, but the 3rd and 4th place will have to play a play-off against the last two in the Chinese Super League, which is difficult, although it is said to be a chance. After all, a skinny camel is bigger than a horse, and the Chinese Super League teams are much stronger than the Chinese League One teams in any respect. And, the input determines the final ranking of the team, and the thickness of the lineup the more to the end of the season, the more can be reflected, often a battle to determine the big picture. Meizhou Hakka's strength is not bad, but there is still a gap between them and the favorites. Therefore, the Meizhou Football Club executives are cautious to say that they will fight for the Super League, and the goal is to fight for the top four.
