As night falls, the 8th round of the Chinese Super League on July 24th, Shenzhen and Henan Songshan Longmen started a fierce battle, and finally both sides shook hands 0-0. The official figures show that despite having 65% of the ball in their possession, Shenzhen had only 3 shots on goal, none of which hit the target. Similarly, Henan only had one shot on target. Both sides felt physically exhausted in their third match after the restart (Henan Songshan Longmen was the fourth).
Shenzhen head coach Carlos said that the continuous high temperature and the schedule of one match in three days have made the players physically exhausted and their physical limit has been reached. Even with personnel rotation, the team will still face a tough test.
The match was held at Guangzhou Galaxy Stadium, where players, coaches and referees from both sides wore public welfare theme shirts with the words "Henan Ping An" to cheer for the people in the disaster area.
In order to cope with the intensive schedule, Carlos kept adjusting the lineup with Jiang Zhipeng, Zheng Dalun, and Praliganji starting. Achimpen, who was scheduled to rotate off, replaced Caldecott on the bench as he was unwell before the match.
Despite rotating several positions, the team still struggled to show excellent coordination under the hot weather. Both sides did not have many shots on goal throughout the game, and Shenzhen's offense was destroyed many times. In the 67th minute, Dai Weijun broke through to the top of the penalty area, and his long-distance shot was blocked by the defense, which was the most threatening shot of the game. Finally, the two sides 0-0 draw.
It was the third tournament after the restart of the Shamrocks and the players did their best on the field, in almost extreme condition and physical strength.
However, the limit was revealed during the pre-match warm-up, when Caldecott suffered an adverse muscle reaction near the end of the warm-up, and Shamrocks pulled him out of the starting lineup for safety reasons. Carlos said that Caldecott was unwell before the game, forcing the team to make adjustments. Despite being prepared for this game, Achimpen also appeared in the second half.
Three consecutive days of one game has violated the rules of scientific training and competition, not only the Shenzhen team, other teams are facing the same problem. At this stage, the thickness of the team's lineup and the coach's scheduling are especially important. Carlos believes that the players have reached their limit, he revealed that there are three personnel changes in the starting lineup.
In fact, what follows is a test for every team. From the current development, teams with deep lineups have more advantages, such as Shandong Taishan, Guangzhou, Shanghai Hong Kong and Shenhua, all of which have two sets of lineups to choose from. How to rationalize the lineup rotation will be the key to the subsequent matches.
Carlos has done a lot of work on how to dispatch more players into the field as well as stimulate the potential of the players after he became the coach. Wang Yongper, Zheng Dalun, Zhang Yuan, Sun Ke and other players gradually get more opportunities to play, "in the intensive journey, the first and substitutes are very critical. In the 6th and 7th rounds of the game, the substitutes showed good athleticism and helped the team maintain high intensity and fast pace." Carlos said.
From the perspective of SZF's roster, Wang Yongper and Sun Ke were once the best in the domestic game, and Li Yuanyi, Dai Weijun, and Xu Haofeng have accumulated a wealth of experience. Chen Xiangyu experienced training in the preliminaries of the Guangdong National Games soccer team, together with Zhou Xin, Chen Guoliang, Huang Ruifeng and other juniors, the Shenzhen football team has a certain depth in the rotation. The center back position has experienced players such as Yuan Mincheng, Zhang Yuan, Praliganji, Pei Shuai, the left back has Jiang Zhipeng and Mi Haolun can be rotated, the right back has Ye Lijiang and Xu Haofeng can be rotated, the back has Dai Weijun, Li Yuanyi, Zhang Yuan, Pei Shuai can be kicked, and there are more choices for the strikers and the side road. How to rotate and match the next lineup, and how to rationalize the physical distribution will determine how far the Shenzhen team can go this year.
