In the midst of the 2021 season's National Football Association Cup round of 32, Guangzhou's youth team unexpectedly lost 0-1 to Qingdao Fanghua Island, a strong team in the second division, dramatically bidding farewell to the tournament in advance. Such a result shocked many fans, but for the struggling Guangzhou team, this may be a kind of release, after all, they successfully "break through" once again.
Guangzhou's "voluntary" outing
In a match against Qingdao Fanghua Island, when the match reached the 84th minute, Guangzhou's substitute goalkeeper Guo Jiayu was warming up on the sidelines, seemingly ready to replace starting goalkeeper Zhang Jianzhi. We originally thought that this substitution would be a change in the goalkeeper's position, but we didn't realize that it was defender Chen Rijin who was replaced. This scene left the audience dumbfounded as two goalkeepers appeared on the field in an instant. Just as everyone was surprised, starting goalkeeper Zhang Jianzhi was urgently recalled to the bench by the coach, and in a hurry, his No. 48 jersey changed from green to red, followed by a quick return to the field, and his position changed to center forward.
What's going on in this scene? It turns out that Guangzhou traveled to the AFC Cup with only 15 players, including two goalkeepers. After sending 11 players to the starting lineup, there were only four players left on the bench. In the 37th minute, Guangzhou conceded a goal, and was trailing thereafter. In the last 5 minutes, the coaching staff wanted to adjust the tactics, let a high center forward into the opponent's penalty area "bombing", but unfortunately there is no suitable candidate. They had no choice but to let the team's 1.96-meter tall Zhang Jianzhi temporarily play as a high center forward, which led to this "funny" scene.
In fact, this is also the coaching staff helpless move. This AFC Cup, Guangzhou team only brought 15 players, coaching staff members are only less than half of the usual, logistics support only two or three people, so there is only one reason: to save money. Since the club's parent company exposed the crisis, Guangzhou team is in the plight of lack of money. It is reported that this AFC Cup, other Chinese Super League teams basically drove their own team exclusive bus to the tournament area, such as the Shenzhen team's bus traveled 3,000 kilometers from Shenzhen, arrived in Changchun in advance, in order to better provide services for the team. Guangzhou City's bus also drove from Guangzhou to Meizhou. However, Guangzhou's exclusive bus only pulled the team from its base to the Guangzhou airport before returning to its base when the team departed two days before the match. For the three days in Jinan, Guangzhou could only rent a local bus to transport the team.
