Shanghai Seaport's journey to the championship was full of twists and turns, from once leading the Chinese Super League by 14 points, to the last two rounds of relegation by only 5 points. 29th of Shandong Shanshan battle, a quarrel due to the fragmentation of the heavenly mountain duel, but the seaport to 1-1 draw for five years to regain the glory of the Super League Championship and cheers. Wu Lei covered his face and wept with emotion: "This championship is happier than the last time!"
In fact, Seaport's preparation for the championship started quietly as early as the match against Beijing Guoan. Despite the formidable opponent, Seaport was confident of a home victory. The club staff secretly planned tactics against Guoan and detailed instructions for interviews after the title win. However, the loss against Guoan dashed all hopes.
With a five-point gap, the Super League title should have been within reach for Seaport according to common sense, but Seaport's trajectory this season has always been unexpected. No one dared to have high expectations in the crucial battle against rival Taishan. "Before the game, we pay little attention to outside predictions and comments, and we don't look back on the loss of the last game, all this information is blocked out for us." A core defense player of Seaport confessed, "Despite being close to the championship, we naturally had a different mindset after missing opportunities before, but before this game, we remained firm that we must win the game and not drag the battle to the last round."
However, the game was surprisingly chaotic. Within 30 minutes of the first half, Seaport and Taishan engaged in a fierce confrontation with exciting scenes. Zhang Linmiao's breakthrough created a shooting opportunity for Lv Wenjun, giving Seaport a 1-0 lead at home. This goal made the field boiled over, because as long as the draw is maintained, Seaport can lock up the Super League title in advance this season. However, after Seaport's goal, the smell of gunpowder on the field intensified. Four minutes before the end of the half, the referee showed four consecutive red cards, and the field was thrown into chaos. Seaport's 9 men were unhappy with Taishan's 10 men, and head coach Harvey also expressed his dissatisfaction with the referee's punishment.
In the second half, the strategies of the two teams were clearly different. Taishan strengthened their offense, while Harbor had one less player to defend. Throughout the first 20 minutes of the second half, Taishan concentrated all their power in Harbour's half, and keeper Wang Dalei looked a bit lonely. 74 minutes, Li Shuai shoveled the ball from behind, and Fernando retaliated in front of the referee by fouling the ball away from the top of his head, and also received a straight red. 9 to 9 is a rare situation in the Chinese Super League. Throughout the match, referee Mai Maiti Jiang showed 5 red cards and 10 yellow cards.
The fans were ready to celebrate as the game reached the 89th minute, but Taishan still hadn't given up on the attack. After Shi Ke's cross was parried by Xie Wenke, the 1-1 scoreline made the last 7 minutes of extra time even more tense. However, Harbour finally survived the bumps in the road with the help of Yan Junling's outstanding performance and the goalposts.
Javier, who had been penalized for sitting in the stands, kept frowning and kept talking to the players on the field on his phone. Finally, the whistle blew, and he finally breathed a sigh of relief, excitedly waving his fist at the highest point of the stands before rushing all the way down to high-five people. This was his first Chinese Super League title amidst all the skepticism, and the first title of his coaching career.
Back in the lounge, Javier enthusiastically expressed his feelings to the players. "Today was the perfect ending. We overcame all the difficulties. We showed everyone that we do our best. We are all fighters! I hope everyone enjoys this championship and the title will come back to Shanghai." He also sent his congratulations to the Chinese and foreign coaching staff and the on-site media in an excited voice. There was no champagne prepared in the lounge and the players grabbed sports drinks and sprayed them on him. Javier kept taking it all in with a smile.
Wu Lei was also emotional, saying that the title after five years made him feel a lot of emotions. "I feel happier about winning the title this time than last time. We players are much older than five years ago. We really wanted to win this title because the chances were getting fewer and fewer. The fact is that the first half of the season seemed to go well this year, but there were some difficulties in the middle or the second half of the season. In fact, the outside world may not know about many difficulties, so we came out on top in the last key games." Vulet knelt down and cried.
Wu Lei had a "direct conversation" with fans on social media, summarizing those imperfect memories. "The fans gave us a lot of support, but there were some misunderstandings and conflicts between us, but we are a family, and a family will have such and such problems, but our hearts will always be together." As the team leader, Xi Zhikang shouted "Long live the fans" at the post-match conference.
After the game, the Harbor players strolled around the stadium with their relatives. Captain Oscar made a point of running under the fans' stands and asking for a fans' flag to wave in the center of the pitch. Although I didn't talk about what's next for me, Oscar had an emotional night as the hero of another Harbour win. "I've been through so much over the years. I'm glad I stuck it out. I stayed in Shanghai and won another title for the team. I love the team, I love the city."
Tonight, as the song "The First Dream" plays on the field again, "winning the championship" is as exciting as it was five years ago. But after a season of ups and downs, there are so many stories, whether they are bumps in the road or questions, that it's worthwhile to think about the harbor.
The tears on the night of the championship were a mixture of the joy of winning the title for the second time and the depression brought on by the many twists and turns in the second half of the league.
Based on Shanghai Seaport's record before August, their title win should not have been delayed until the penultimate round. At their peak, they were 14 points ahead of Shanghai Shenhua in second place. At that time, no one would doubt that they would get the title early, the suspense was only a few rounds ahead. However, since losing 3-4 at home to Zhejiang on August 12, Seaport has inexplicably put on a strange brake. They were first held to a 1-1 draw at home by Meizhou Hakka, then eliminated 2-3 in the AFC Champions League play-offs with Thai Premier League side Pathum United.
Two wins and three losses in the next five rounds of the league allowed Shandong Taishan to catch up to just five points off the points. They kept putting the brakes on, sending themselves to the penultimate round for Shandong Taishan. Pingtai Shan's win was welcome, but the four league games they lost at the start of August, especially the home match with Beijing Guoan, raised concerns about whether there were problems within this team.
When the team's performance fluctuated, there were also conflicts between player Choi Wai Hong and fans. Cai posted a friend circle of Hong Kong fans turning their backs to "check which light bulb is broken", which greatly hurt the feelings of Hong Kong fans. The incident ended with the club fining Cai Huikang. Head coach Javier is not only known for his results, but also for his frequent extreme behavior on the pitch due to his inability to control his emotions. For example, during the match with Shandong Taishan, Mai Tijiang actually knelt down after being shown a red card after entering the field in protest.
Wu Lei said "the outside world may not know a lot of difficulties" will naturally cause the outside world association. It's all because the Shanghai group is also undergoing a change: at the beginning of August, Yan Jun, the president of the Shanghai group, suddenly resigned from all his positions, and on August 14th, he was officially declared to be "suspected of serious violations of discipline and the law". Since then, Harbour's record, the team's performance, and even the referees' attitude towards Harbour Club have all been in stark contrast to what they used to be.
Another factor that should affect the seaport's record is the indictment of Chen Xuyuan, the former chairman of the Chinese Football Association (CFA), at the end of September. The prosecutor's charge clearly states: "Chen Xuyuan utilized his position as deputy secretary of the Party committee, president, secretary of the Party committee, chairman of the board of Shanghai International Port (Group) Co., Ltd., head of the preparatory group for the replacement of the CFA, deputy secretary of the Party committee of the CFA, and chairman of the CFA, etc., as well as his position of power and authority to form the convenience of the conditions, to seek benefits for others, and to accept the property of others unlawfully.
Two leaders of the Shanghai Group are suspected of corruption, and the final answer as to whether or not the incidents in question are related to soccer and the club needs to be given by the public security authorities. However, this situation in the group will undoubtedly cast a shadow over the future of the Harbour Club. It is well known that since 2014, the Shanghai Group has spent a huge amount of money investing in soccer. Previously there was talk of a 12 billion dollar championship. In these years of the collapse of golden dollar soccer, the high investment in Seaport continues due to Oscar's high salary.
The outside world is also trying to figure out if there has been a change in Shanghai Group's future soccer investments after the accidents of Yan Jun and Chen Xuyuan. Shanghai Group has assigned a new party secretary and general manager Sha Changliang to the club. What is the specific strategy for future investment in soccer? The word inside Shanghai Group is that it depends on the attitude of the municipal government.
