Tuesday afternoon, Zhejiang soccer team embarked on a trip to Foshan, opened the curtain on the intensive training lasted nearly a month, the closed training until April 8 to come to an end.
Looking back, the Zhejiang team had started training in Kunming, but due to the difficulty of finding warm-up opponents and return to Hangzhou in advance. Affected by the epidemic, Hangzhou during the scheduled warm-up matches also failed.
Last Saturday, Zhejiang team was supposed to play against the Chinese B powerhouse Jiangsu Zhongnan Kodjie Yuan at the Zhongtai base, however, the opponents were unable to make the trip due to the restriction of anti-epidemic policy after their success in the second division.
This is not the first time Zhejiang team canceled warm-up games. Previously, the team and the Shanghai Jiading team agreed to a warm-up game was canceled for the same reason.
During the winter training in Kunming, the Zhejiang team has warmed up with the Zhejiang U21 team, but so far has not had the experience of playing against foreign teams. Finding opponents is especially tough during an epidemic. Fortunately, the players are in a positive frame of mind, with one player stating, "Even if opponents are hard to find, we will practice in our own groups, and the more difficult it is, the more we will try to stay in top form."
The trip to Foshan allowed Zhejiang to schedule warm-up matches thanks to the many teams training here. The team, which managed to break through to the Super League here last year, hopes to continue its good fortune in the new environment.
The Zhejiang team will take advantage of the Foshan training opportunity to arrange four warm-up matches against newly-promoted first-place finishers Qingdao Youth Island and Guangxi Pingguo Ha Loud and Clear, as well as Chinese Super League supremo Guangzhou and promoted horse Wuhan Sanzhen.
Despite the drastic change in Guangzhou's lineup, Zhejiang still has a chance to learn about the strength of their Chinese Super League opponents for the new season. Wuhan Three Town, as the earliest Chinese Super League team to start training, has strong reinforcements this year and is seen as the dark horse of the new season, they will be a big test for Zhejiang.
Currently, Zhejiang has four foreigners in Mu Xiekui, Frank, Matthews and Evolo, but a defender foreigner is still needed for the team. In terms of internal reinforcements, the team has signed a number of free agents, including Rong Hao and Zheng Xuejian, and Gao Di and Zhang Jiaqi have joined the training, both of whom are old national soccer players, with Gao Di having scored in the national soccer team's 2:0 victory over Macedonia in the 2014 warm-up match.
