The 29th round of the Chinese Super League (CSL) came to a close with Dalian Ren shaking hands with Qingdao Hainiu 2-2 on the road, while Nantong Zhiyun thrashed Meizhou Hakka 4-0 on the road, with the relegation battle between the two teams set to culminate in the final round.
Nantong Zhiyun is currently in the bottom three of the Chinese Super League table with 22 points, and will host the eighth-ranked Tianjin Jinmen Tiger in the final round; Dalian Ren is in the bottom two of the table with 20 points, and will host Shanghai Seaport, which has already won the championship in advance, in the final round.
In the last round, Nantong Zhiyun will be relegated if they win, but if they draw or lose, it depends on the result of the match between Dalian Ren and Seaport; for Dalian Ren, the only way to be relegated is to beat Seaport.
By Jia Yanfeng: 2-2, Dalian People drew with Qingdao on the road, but Nantong Zhiyun unexpectedly beat Meizhou Hakka on the road to get all three points. As a result, the Dalian people once again fell into the relegation zone. Since Nantong is 2 points ahead of Dalian, Dalian people want to stay in the relegation zone, not only need to win the harbor, but also hope that Jinmen Tigers at least force Nantong Zhiyun to draw.
After the match, some fans said that completing relegation under such conditions is at least a fairy tale, if not a myth. Because even if the Dalian people won the seaport which has already won the championship, the Jinmen Tigers, who also have no desire, do not have enough reasons to stop Nantong Jiyun.
This is not the first time that the Dalian team is in relegation crisis, but before that there are Zhao Mingyang, Sun Xishuang, Wang Jianlin and several other deep love of soccer, deep love of Dalian investors together for the Dalian soccer to keep the roots. They have invested nearly tens of billions of capital, almost with the way of charity to lift the Dalian soccer for so many years, especially Albin and Dalian side of the two periods, all zero return, Wanda took over despite some business cooperation with the local, but the investment is also far more than the revenue.
The main reason for the massive withdrawal of state-owned capital from China's professional leagues is that the country does not allow state-owned assets to be invested in the zero-income soccer industry, and does not allow state-owned capital to be casually lost. However, for the private sector, they are also facing the same plight of serious loss of capital and not being able to make ends meet, so if Dalian soccer is relegated this time, it will indeed be difficult to find a private company to take over the team. There is only one outcome waiting for the team - the investors will choose to dissolve the team in order to minimize losses and absolve themselves of the responsibility of continuing to pay their debts.
This is despite the fact that Wanda previously had an agreement with the city that it would settle all outstanding debts, and next year will only be the third year of the agreement. But as things stand, Wanda has no reason to insist on actively paying off the debt. Due to the changes in the club's top management, there is also no one with enough activism to keep lobbying the government and Boss Wang to continue to give Dalianren FC the support it needs to keep the team alive. Chairman Wang has already been bleeding the team through the teeth on many things purely for the sake of integrity, but this blood transfusion should be based on the idea that everyone should be thanked or exchanged in good faith, rather than sitting back and enjoying the ride while he faces everything alone.
If the Dalian People can be relegated, there is still a chance for their fate to turn around, but if they are relegated to the Central League again, the team will not only have to face high debts and a more worrying future, but also have to consider that there is also Dalian Zhixing in this city, which has just been promoted to the Central League and has no debts. The cost of supporting Zhixing is much lower than that of supporting Dalian.
From the beginning of the party era to the present, Wanda Group to the club blood transfusion of billions of dollars, Wanda in the absence of any investment necessity and claim under the premise to be able to hold out for so long, has been invaluable, but who will be tired. Even if the team relegated, if still put all the responsibility and burden on Wanda, even if it can survive next year, then the year after? If Wanda gives the team a large amount of money to release the debt but still can not change the fate of the team, then Wanda will also consider the value of this part of the capital investment and the return of the return ratio.
The team's debt crisis didn't just erupt, but two seasons have gone by without any program regarding the long-term development and planning of this team being put in place, and how does this living one day at a time give Wanda enough incentive to pay off the huge debt?
Therefore, for the current Dalian people, there is not much need to consider things too far, for many players, perhaps this life they do not only experience a team relegation, but if the team relegated, buried not only the history of the team, there are a lot of Dalian's own region of the goals and dreams of the youth training players, and at the same time, the Eastern Province of the Chinese Super League team will once again only Changchun Yatai a sole seedling left. So, in the final round of the Chinese Super League, if the Dalian players do not want to leave the deepest regrets in their career, if they still have a trace of pride and dignity belonging to their career, they should take out their greatest sincerity and efforts to fight for the theoretical possibility of relegation.
In this way, even if the Dalian people really relegated, this team is still worthy of respect, and at the same time, people feel sorry. Because in the body of Dalian people, written with a lot of Chinese soccer should have the most characteristics and character. Not afraid of no money, not afraid of suffering, for fear of no hope; money is not much, people are not strong but the hearts of the people are also able to play a piece of heaven and earth, such as the 2022 season; 2023 season all the way to the difficult, according to theory, may have locked the relegation quota, but the Dalian people froze insisted on the last round, even in the face of Qingdao 2-0 lead under the premise of the pursuit of leveling not to give up. Dalian is one of the few teams in recent years that have not done well, but they don't play bad, don't give up, and can still pass on positive energy from time to time.
Therefore, in the final round of the Chinese Super League, Dalian people need Dalian fans to cheer and encourage the team, and hope that there are representatives from the city to show a kind of supportive attitude, at least in the stands of the Dalian Zhixing's first-place rush, there are important leaders from the Dalian Municipal Bureau of Sports, and the Dalian people also need this kind of encouragement.
Relegation, what it takes is a city's effort.
By Jiang Hai, Special Correspondent: On October 29, the penultimate round of the 2023 season of the Chinese Super League started at the same time, Nantong Zhiyun, ranked second from the bottom of the table, challenged Meizhou Hakka on the road, and the team finally got three points with a score of 4-0, rising to the third from the bottom in the league with the last round left, overpowering the Dalian People's Team, and a win in the last round of the match will lead to relegation success.
In the last round of the league home 0-1 loss to Shanghai Shenhua, Nantong Zhiyun's relegation situation was once precarious, the last two rounds they have to face Meizhou Hakka away and home against Tianjin Jinmen Tiger, even if all the win, but also need to look at the face of relegation rivals Dalian People's team, but also in the mutual record with the Dalian People's Nantong Zhiyun home draws and away losses, and does not occupy the advantage, so as long as Dalian People's team in the last two games all the win! Therefore, as long as the Dalian people in the last two games to win, Nantong Zhiyun in the last two rounds no matter what kind of result, will become the second relegation of the season in the Chinese Super League team.
Therefore, the match against Meizhou Hakka was a "can't afford to lose" final for Nantong Zhiyun, and the team had already suffered 5 consecutive defeats, so they desperately needed to get a point to boost the team's morale. Fortunately, Nantong Zhiyun started the game very well, with Jiang Zilei breaking the deadlock in the 12th minute of the game. In the following game, Nantong Zhiyun played smoothly: Castillo scored in the 64th minute, extending the lead to 2-0; Morellato scored in the 89th minute, making it 3-0; and Zheng Haoqian scored in the 2nd minute of the extra time after breaking the ball, sealing the victory with a 4-0 win.
By taking this game, Nantong Zhiyun also gave Meizhou Hakka their first loss in the last 5 rounds of matches, and at the same time, Nantong Zhiyun also took their relegation destiny into their own hands. Overall, Nantong Zhiyun's performance in the Chinese Super League this season has not been ideal, and they need to reflect on their problems and find ways to solve them.
Before this round against Meizhou Hakka, Nantong Zhiyun and Dalian Ren shared 19 points, but due to the inferiority of win-loss relationship, Nantong Zhiyun is in the relegation zone. In this match against Meizhou Hakka, Dalian People's team is on the road to challenge Qingdao Sea Cowboys. Compared to Nantong Zhiyun's away win, Dalian People scored two goals after being 0-2 down, but in the end, they failed to beat their opponent on the road and only got one point. However, Dalian People's fighting spirit in this game was admirable, but not getting three points from Haiyun handed Nantong Zhiyun the advantage of relegation. After the end of this round of games, the Super League title has been revealed, only one relegation suspense, in addition to the already relegated Shenzhen team, the other relegation team will be produced in the Nantong Zhiyun and Dalian people between, this game away win, but also let the Nantong Zhiyun temporarily occupy the relegation advantage.
In the final round of matches, Nantong Zhiyun hosted Tianjin Jinmen Tiger, while Dalian People hosted Shanghai Harbor, who had already won the championship. With a 2-point lead, Nantong Zhiyun must win the last game. If they can get 3 points, they won't have to look at others and will be able to relegate at home, but if they draw or lose, they will have to look at the results of the match between Dalian Ren and Shanghai Seaport. For now, we can only say that Nantong Zhiyun has left one foot in next year's Chinese Super League, but the team still can't let their guard down until the end of the league.
After the match, Nantong Zhiyun coach David said: "As we expected, today was a difficult game, the opponent will not let you win the game easily, they played with the strongest lineup. We also executed the counter-attacking tactics that we set up before the game very well, and it was also important that we didn't concede any goals today. The opponent is a very strong team, so the three points were also valuable for us, our players have been fighting like warriors. In the last game we need to fulfill our promise to our fans to take the game and go for the relegation goal, it's too little to say thank you any more to the fans, they are supporting us both home and away."
For the Dalian people, the team has been forced to the edge of the cliff, even if the team in the last round of the home victory over the Shanghai seaport, may not be able to relegation success, and Nantong Zhiyun in the case of the initiative, facing the desireless Tianjin Jinmen Tiger, still have to go all out. As the "only seed" of Jiangsu soccer in the Chinese Super League, Nantong Zhiyun has had a rough season, and now that it can regain the advantage of being relegated, the team should go all out and use a home win to bring this season to a successful end, and at the same time, let Jiangsu soccer continue to remain in China's top league.
