Chapter 396 The benefits of the FA Cup
After the FA Cup semi-finals, the final will not start until two months later on November 4th, with all the league games in between.
Flash Star can turn all their attention back to the league and use the nine league games in these two months to establish their advantage in the league.
Because the next round of the league was two days after the FA Cup semi-finals, the Flash Star team took a flight back to Jincheng the night the game ended.
Then in Saturday's league game, Zhao Kangming rotated out all the players who played in the FA Cup semi-finals, allowing substitute players who did not play and rotation players who did not go to the away game at all to play.
Against Youjiang Honglian who is not very strong.
Flashing Stars, who rotated a large number of players, were not able to defeat Youjiang Honglian at home, but they did not lose either.
They tied with their opponents 0:0 at home.
Considering that Flash Star tried their best in the FA Cup semi-finals and many players suffered from cramps, even if they beat Poseidon, it can be said to be a "miserable victory". So if we haven't lost in the league yet, this result is completely acceptable.
What follows is a crucial battle for Flash Star:
In the twenty-third round of the league, they will challenge Ningtian Yongan away from home. The latter is currently ranked third in the league, one point less than the Flash Stars, who have played one less game.
If Flash Star loses to Ningtian Yongan in the away game, the opponent will temporarily surpass Flash Star in points with a two-point advantage.
Although Flash Star will make up for the missed league game immediately afterwards, if they can win, they can continue to be ranked second with a one-point advantage, squeezing Ning Tian Yongan down.
But hasn’t the gap between the two sides been completely reduced to one point?
Everyone thought that this game would be a very fierce competition.
But when the game started, they discovered that was not the case at all.
Flash Stars, who sent all their main players in this game, played very proactively even though it was an away game.
Within ten minutes they had the upper hand.
In the 23rd minute of the game, Zhang Qinghuan scored a goal in the penalty area to break the deadlock.
Five minutes later, Hu Lai shot in front of the goal to expand the score.
At the end of the first half, the visiting Shining Stars led the home team Ningtian Yongan, a team relegated from the Chinese Super League, with a score of 2:0.
The commentator of Ningtian TV exclaimed: "This Flashing Star is completely different from the one in the first half of the season!"
He made a bit of a fuss.
After all, this Flashing Star is a team that can eliminate its opponents 2:1 at the home court of Poseidon, the sixth-placed team in the Chinese Super League.
That is a real Chinese Super League team, and Ningtian Yongan is just a team relegated from the Chinese Super League...
When Zhao Kangming decided not to give up the FA Cup so quickly, he just wanted to use the Chinese Super League team to test the quality of this shining star.
When he made the decision at that time, he never expected that it would actually help the team's performance in the league.
Because the Flash Star players who had seen the world in the Football Association Cup suddenly felt that the "strong teams" in the Chinese League One were just bluffing...
Ningtian Yongan ranked 15th and second to last in the Chinese Super League last season. Poseidon, which Shining Star defeated in an away game, ranked sixth in the Chinese Super League.
From this perspective, what does Ning Tian Yongan have to be afraid of?
In the first half of the season, the Flash Stars were forced to a 0:0 draw at home by this team. Now that I think about it, their performance at that time was really not that good...
Flashing Stars, who reached the FA Cup final, gained confidence that other Chinese League One teams rarely have, which will be of huge benefit to them in the next league.
This kind of benefit was unexpected by those who previously accused Flash Star of not doing their best in the FA Cup and giving up the FA Cup to play in the league.
In the second half, the two sides changed sides and fought again. Qin Lin and Chen Xingyi scored again on Shining Star's side.
In the end, they defeated Ningtian Yongan 4:0 in the away game.
To be honest, Shining Star defeated Ningtian Yongan, who was third in the league, 4:0 in an away game. This game shocked other teams in the Chinese League A as much as Shining Star defeated Nanhai, the league leader at the time, 4:2 at home. team, no less than Flash Star, which eliminated the Chinese Super League team Poseidon 2:1 away in the FA Cup semi-finals.
After all, in the game against Nanhai, Flash Star still conceded two goals. Judging from the game process, Flash Star did not win easily. They tried their best to win this game.
Not to mention playing against Poseidon. They used very creative set-piece tactics, which was a bit tricky. After that game, Flash Star's set-piece tactics also became the subject of heated discussion. Many analysts believe that the unusual set-piece tactics are the key to the Flash Stars being able to score two goals against Poseidon.
These analyzes are well made. In fact, if it weren't for the set-piece tactics contributed by Hu Lai, the only winning strategy Zhao Kangming could think of was to drag the game into a penalty shootout and leave everything to luck.
In both games, Flash Star won, but it was not an easy win and it was tricky.
However, in the away game against Ningtian Yongan, Shining Star played as if they were at home. They scored two goals in each half and defeated their opponent without any blood.
After the game, Ningtian Yongan's players had not yet reacted. Some players said in an interview after the game that when they played against Flash Stars, they felt as if they were playing in the Chinese Super League last season...
What does this mean?
It means that Flash Star's performance is already at the Chinese Super League level.
This may be what Flash Star gained from eliminating the Chinese Super League teams in two consecutive rounds in the Football Association Cup.
And if Flash Star is already at the Chinese Super League level, does that mean they will definitely be promoted successfully this season?
As a result, other teams that want to be promoted may only have one promotion spot left...
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Even though Flashstar is still ranked second after winning this game, the first-place Nanhai team has already felt tremendous pressure.
Because in the next mid-week, when other teams are resting, Flash Star will face Xinzhou Kunlun at home. This game is a make-up match for the 18th round of the league.
After this game, the Flash Stars will have the same number of games as other teams.
The Nanhai team, which has played one more game so far, ranks first with 52 points - they lost to Ningtian Yongan in the last round and missed the best chance to get rid of the Flash Stars in the standings. Because in that round of league rotation, Flash Star was tied with Youjiang Honglian at home.
As a result, they are now only two points ahead of the Flash Stars.
If the Stars defeat Xinzhou Kunlun in the mid-week make-up match, the Stars will overtake the Nanhai team by one point and take the top spot in the league standings.
Judging from the performance of Flash Stars in the game against Ningtian Yongan, the probability of them defeating Xinzhou Kunlun at home is very high.
This is indeed the case. On Wednesday, September 20, the Flash Stars returned to their home court and used a half-main and half-rotation lineup and still defeated Xinzhou Kunlun, who was on an expedition, 2:0.
After this game, they ranked first in the league standings with 53 points. This is the first time they have returned to the top spot in the league after losing to Heihe North Stars in an away game on August 27. this location.
Although they are only one point ahead of the South China Sea team.
But many people should have noticed that Flashing Star's current state is difficult to interrupt.
Sure enough, the next Sunday, they faced the eleventh-ranked Tongqi Eagles at home, and the Flashing Stars won 3:1. Hu Lai scored twice in the game.
While helping Flash Stars continue to lead the league standings, he also led the scorer list with 18 goals.
Ivar Moses, who ranks second, has thirteen goals.
Hu Lai's lead is still huge.
If this momentum continues, many people think that Hu Lai's chances of winning the Golden Boot are getting bigger and bigger.
In fact, even if he does not win the league's top scorer, his performance this season can definitely be regarded as phenomenal, which is rare in the history of the Chinese League.
After all, although there were local shooters before him who had won the top scorer in the Chinese League in the 2012 season, Lin was already 26 years old when he won the top scorer, and Hu Lai had just passed. On his 20th birthday, at such a young age, he was able to score so many goals in the league. Looking at the entire history of Chinese football, there are not many.
Not to mention that there are still ten rounds of league games before the end of the league, and Hu Lai has already scored 18 goals.
It is only three goals away from the single-season scoring record of 21 goals for a local Chinese top scorer set by Lin Gang ten years ago, and 22 goals set by Brazilian forward Olivier Ferrier of Hexi Daqin last season. The Chinese League One single-season scoring record is only four goals short.
Judging from his current state, he is very hopeful to break these two records, and maybe even improve both records significantly, making it difficult for latecomers to surpass them.
For a time, many people on the Internet began to pay attention to the scorer list of the Chinese League One and Hu Lai's performance.
Under the attention of so many people, Hu Lai did not feel the huge pressure and performed abnormally.
On the contrary, in the 25th round of the league three days later, when Shining Star challenged the relegation team Yunshan Caiyun away from home, he scored another goal in the game.
Helped Flash Star escape from the relegation team's home court 2:0.
In the same round of the league, the Nanhai team lost and their points stayed at 55 points. Flashing Star accumulated 59 points with this victory, leaving the Nanhai team by four points and widening the points gap.
At the same time, Ningtian Yongan won two consecutive victories after losing to Flash Star, accumulating 52 points and approaching the Nanhai team.
Considering that the Nanhai team has to play against the Stars at home in the penultimate round of the league, this situation cannot help but be reminiscent of their last season - the Nanhai team, which still had a glimmer of hope for promotion, lost to the Stars at their home court. The opportunity to upgrade was completely lost.
Will we repeat the same mistake this year?
Fortunately, in the next 26th round of the league, Luo Kai broke out. He scored twice to help the Nanhai team defeat Tangdu Jiulong and stop the decline.
His personal number of league goals has also reached nine, and he is already the second top scorer in the Nanhai team.
This is already his best season in professional football.
If any twenty-year-old player performs like this, he will laugh out of his dreams.
You must know that Chen Xingyi, who was loaned to Flash Stars from Golden Arrow, also scored nine league goals, the same as him.
But Luo Kai couldn't laugh at all.
Who let there be a monster in front of him...
Although Hu Lai did not score in this round of the league, he still continues to lead the league scorer list with 19 league goals, a full ten more than Luo Kai, who had the best season of his career!
The number of goals scored in the best season of his career is only a fraction of the number of goals scored by others. What is there to be proud of?
Still happy?
It's a joke to say it out loud!
The only good news may be that after this round of league play, Luo Kai received a call-up from the National Olympic team to participate in three friendly matches of the National Olympic team on October 7, 12 and 15.
This will be his first time playing for the country and wearing the jersey of the Olympic team.
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PS, in the last few hours of September, please vote! (End of chapter)