As night fell on June 16th in Beijing, Shandong Taishan defeated Changchun Yatai 4-0 in a highly anticipated matchup, not only ushering in their first consecutive win of the new season, but also giving their opponents their first loss of the season. However, despite the three precious points, Taishan realized that the four goals were due to the mistakes of Yatai's backline, and the team still has a lot of room for improvement.
The marquee matchup features the defending champions on one side and last season's dark horse, the fourth-ranked team in the league, on the other. Both teams had an unsatisfactory start to the season, with Taishan failing to show the style of the defending champions, while Yatai, although undefeated in the first three rounds, only won against the weaker Guangzhou City. Perhaps it is the focus of the battle to bring great psychological pressure on the players, Yatai players repeatedly to the Taishan team to give "big gifts", goalkeeper Liu Weiguo is in the first and second halves of each made a low-level mistakes, was replaced by the coaching staff.
It is worth mentioning that Liu Weiguo, who is already 30 years old, came from Luneng's youth training, but has not been able to gain a foothold in the first team, and in the early years, he went to Guangzhou Evergrande. The error allowed Taishan to score twice. In the second half, a mistake in Okere's penalty area allowed Jin Jingdao to score. Then, Moises' brilliant long-distance shot was also thanks to a clearance error by Yatai's Liao Chengjian.
Although all four goals came from the opponent's mistakes, Taishan's players' aggressive pressing and tireless efforts contributed a lot. Liu Weiguo's mistake in the first half was due to Taishan's high press in front of the field, which made Atay's defenders feel the pressure when passing the ball. Jin Jingdao's goal was due to his tireless running and scrambling. Sun Junho's key interception also won the final goal for Taishan.
The big win gave Taishan three points and their first back-to-back wins of the season. Head coach Hao Wei was also able to comfortably drink water on the sidelines, in stark contrast to the previous games. However, despite the big win and the winning streak, Taishan still needs to improve on the offensive side of the ball. Cressan has yet to be integrated into the team's offensive system, and the team's lack of pivots and high points in the frontcourt has led to a stagnant offense. Only by improving their offense can they score easily in the game. (Yang Xixi)
