On September 1, Guangzhou suffered their second consecutive defeat in the 12th round of the Chinese Super League (CSL) Supplementary Match with a score of 0-3 against Zhejiang on the road. Zhejiang's foreign aid Frank scored twice and Evolo contributed a header as Guangzhou's performance was disappointing.
Since Zheng Zhi's arrival, Guangzhou have had their ups and downs, with 1 win, 1 draw and 2 losses in 4 matches. After 16 games, Guangzhou is still in the relegation zone with 10 points from 3 wins, 1 draw and 12 losses, ranking 16th in the Chinese Super League.
Before challenging Zhejiang on the road, the Guangzhou team officially released a poster with the words "All the gods return to their positions, Guangzhou team guardian league assembled! The words of the poster are inspiring.
Will the "Guardians" on the poster be able to protect Guangzhou's victory?
The Return of the Gods
On August 31, Guangzhou announced five new additions to their first team roster, including No. 10 Zheng Zhi, No. 9 Huang Bowen, No. 43 Zhang Chenglin, No. 46 Artemisia Junmin, and No. 40 Tan Kaiyuan.
This news not only announced the joining of Artemisia, but also reminiscent of the "head coach is warming up" sequence in the movie "The Richest Man in the West Rainbow City", which is a clever combination of reality and fiction.
The movie West Rainbow City
On August 12, Guangzhou team away 1-2 defeated Chengdu Rongcheng, the next day, Guangzhou team officially announced the change of manager.
"Appointment of Zheng Zhi as the head coach of the first team of Guangzhou Football Club and Liu Zhiyu as the head coach of the club's ladder team."
The official Guangzhou team issued a letter encouraging all coaches, athletes and staff to do their best to complete the season with a strong sense of honor, responsibility and teamwork.
Meanwhile, Guangzhou's coaching staff has also been restructured, with former Guangzhou players Huang Bowen and Mei Fang becoming assistant coaches.
On the 18th, former Guangzhou player Zhang Chenglin joined the coaching staff as a physical fitness coach.
On the 27th, Rong Hao, who joined Zhejiang for half a year, also returned to the Guangzhou team.
On the 31st, the first half of the first half did not register the former national football team captain, studying in Huazhong University of Science and Technology Artemisia Junmin to join, the Evergrande peak period of the bitter pursuit of the international footballer, the two sides at the age of 35 years old finally repaired the fruit.
The failure of the Evergrande football school players Tan Kaiyuan has also been enrolled, plus the second transfer window to report Zhang Xiuwei and Li Xuepeng, the Guangzhou team can be set up a "quasi ex-national football national team".
Guangzhou official player list
Guangzhou fans in the official microblogging message below: "Guangzhou team this year so difficult situation, this group of people unhesitatingly come back to help, by virtue of a passion and moral righteousness, really very moved."
Some fans also lamented:
"After all, it's the men who carry it all."
Zheng Zhi said: "Guangzhou team's past glory is me and other old players together to create, whether active or retired Guangzhou players, we all have a deep affection for this team and the city, we miss the past time, and now return to us are voluntary, so the other veteran players in the time I step forward to invite them to come back, they are very quick. "
Factory Hengtai
In February, Xu Jiayin went to the club to convene the Evergrande soccer management meeting, at which he said, "Evergrande should continue to do a good job in soccer unswervingly, and do its best to contribute to the development and rise of Chinese soccer in a solid manner."
Lao Xu also said that according to the requirements of the group, "Evergrande Football School should be built into the cradle of Chinese soccer stars, and Guangzhou team should be a good cradle platform", to open up the road of talent cultivation from the football school to the club, and to practically realize "soccer from the beginning of the child", and to deliver excellent young talents in one batch and one batch, and to contribute to the revitalization of Chinese football. A batch of excellent young talents, out of a club and football school self-blood-creation, virtuous cycle of the new road, for the revitalization of Chinese soccer contribution.
We all thought that the old Xu burnt out, has not forgotten that he has been shouting for more than 10 years "revitalize China's soccer", but also has a beginning and an end.
And 3 days before that meeting, Guangzhou club issued a notice within the soccer club players set and salary standards, clear first-team players, the highest pre-tax salary of 600,000 per year, and a maximum of only 3 people, and the starting salary line of first-team players for pre-tax 60,000 per year.
May 2, Guangzhou team 2022 season first team list came out, 35 people in the list, 29 people from the Evergrande football school, the average age of the first team is 21.12 years old, the youngest Guangzhou team, but also the history of the youngest Super League team, but also the old Xu said many times before the realization of the "all Chinese class", finally realized.
Ten years ago, Xu Kayan said: Evergrande will be the strongest, the most envied and the most respected "three most clubs".
Nowadays, "Guangzhou Evergrande" is becoming "Factory Hengtai".
Guangzhou, who sent a reserve team to the AFC Champions League, lost 0-8 to Kawasaki Frontale, creating a record for the worst loss by a Chinese Super League team in the AFC Champions League, and breaking the record for the longest losing streak in the AFC Champions League previously held by a Vietnamese team.
In the 2nd round of the Chinese Super League (CSL), Guangzhou lost 0-6 to promotion horse Wuhan Sanzhen, tying the record for the largest score loss in the history of Guangzhou's CSL, and also the worst loss after Evergrande took over Guangzhou's soccer.
Zheng Zhi speaks at Guangti
On the 2nd day after 0-6, Zheng Zhi, who is an associate professor at the Guangzhou Sports Institute Football Academy, spoke as a representative of the undergraduate faculty of the Guangzhou Sports Institute Football Academy in a speech at the 2022 graduation ceremony of the Guangzhou Sports Institute 2022.
"Looking back on my career, I do have some accomplishments, but more than anything, it's the regrets I have left behind on the field that I will never forget."
After being reversed by Chengdu, the Guangzhou club couldn't sit still and met to discuss bringing back Zheng Zhi, which Xu Jiayin immediately agreed to.
Zheng Zhi said Xu Jiayin personally approached him to talk about it: "When the boss talked to me, he also hoped that I could use my experience to help this young team get on the right track as soon as possible."
Enjoying soccer
Guangzhou won 2 of their first 12 matches in the Super League against a similarly unbeaten all Chinese team in Hebei.
Zheng Zhi said, "Whether it is from the personnel structure or playing style, or the content of the game presented, I do not think it should be this current points, position, I think it does not match the efforts of the players. Previously, Guangzhou team has been performing strongly, but now because of the loss of many main players, from the law of soccer is the current performance, but does not mean that this team has no potential."
Once again coaching Guangzhou team for the first time, the face of the former head coach Li Zhangsu led the Shenzhen team, Li Zhangsu is very optimistic about Zheng Zhi: "I privately and Zheng Zhi talked about the past and the present, he is a player I have brought three years, in all aspects of the character is very good, I believe that he in the head coaching position will also achieve good results."
4-1, Wei Shihao scored two world waves, Yang Liyu scored a goal, Guangzhou team once again completed the "minimum spending".
Zheng Zhi on the sidelines clenched his fists and raised his arms in celebration, Guangzhou fans emotional:
"All back!"
As the team's technical director, Fu Bo said in the press conference after the game: "Back to the locker room, Zheng Zhi encouraged the players, Zheng Zhi and other members of the coaching staff to return, for the young players itself is a kind of activation, some players have seen them play, some players are with these old players played together, and now re-work together, that kind of closeness, that kind of common struggle feeling that The feeling of closeness, the feeling of working together, motivates everyone on the team. Working together is more intimate, feel back to the past Evergrande feeling, we are together to fight together, very good."
In the 2nd match, Guangzhou drew 0-0 with the pressing Dalian people, and Xie Hui gave Zheng Zhi a high evaluation after the match.
"I'm very happy to see Dazhi, although we didn't stay in the national team for a long time in '05, we played a lot of matches, and we also played in the East Asian quarterfinals. The game with Germany, he stuffed the ball very beautiful. Hopefully (this kind of) mid-generation coach, in fact, a little late, should have given him a chance. I hope all walks of life will give us more support. I think he's done a very good job, just one week in total, the whole team's outlook, not only the spirit, but also the way of playing. They played very resolutely, Guangzhou is still a very promising team."
The latter two games were a 1-2 defeat on the road against No. 3 Henan and a 0-3 defeat against No. 6 Zhejiang.
Although suffered consecutive losses, but these two games Guangzhou team created quite a lot of chances, against Henan has 7 times, against Zhejiang has 9 times, as Xie Hui said Guangzhou team's spirit has completely changed, they are no longer a scattered sand.
Zheng Zhi said: "When the boss communicated with me, he repeatedly emphasized the spirit and cohesion formed by the Guangzhou team in the past. Now Chinese soccer is not only a team facing difficulties, in times of difficulty, it is more necessary for all of us Chinese footballers to work hard to support. Difficulty is not resistance, now these young players inside the team are basically grown up from childhood watching our group of old players get honors for the team, we have the responsibility to let them pass on."
After the return, Zheng Zhi and the young players said the most is "enjoy soccer":
"The first thing to do is to enjoy soccer and face every game with confidence, regardless of the result."
Guangzhou is in 16th place, but the points gap with the previous teams is not big, Changchun Yatai 19 points, Tianjin Jinmen Tiger 19 points, Wuhan Changjiang 17 points, Shenzhen 16 points, Dalian people 15 points, Cangzhou Xiongshi 12 points, by no means no chance to catch up.
And don't forget that Zheng Zhi, Huang Bowen, Zhang Chenglin and Artemisia Junmin in the "Guardian League" have yet to make their debut!
Asked if he was worried about his lack of relegation experience as a coach, Zheng humored him:
"It's not as if I don't actually have relegation experience, I went through it in the Premier League back in the day."
