Chapter 400 League and FA Cup
The happiest thing for Zhao Kangming was that after the national team match day, he saw Hu Lai, Wang Guangwei, Chen Xingyi and Zhang Qinghuan with their limbs intact and alive at the Liucheng training base of Anton Flash Star.
They have not been injured or troubled by injuries in the past few games of the national team.
Because the head coach of the National Olympic team Shi Wuyuan mainly tried tactics and personnel in the three warm-up matches of the National Olympic team, Hu Lai, Chen Xingyi and Wang Guangwei did not play a full nine games in the National Olympic team. Ten minutes later, this also meant that although they had played three Olympic games, they were not very tired.
The same was true for Zhang Qinghuan in the two games of the national team. He only played for 60 minutes in the two games combined, all of which came as a substitute. It can be seen that after re-entering the national team after three years, he still needs to find his rhythm and feeling again.
Although some of the national team members are his teammates from three years ago, his playing style is completely different now, and everyone needs to adapt again.
But no matter what, being able to return to the national team is a very good improvement for Zhang Qinghuan.
Back in the league, Flash Star has one and only one goal, and that is to upgrade.
Although the first leg of the FA Cup final will be in half a month, no one has the time to think about that issue now.
Because the promotion places are the top two in the league, so if you want to ensure promotion, you only need to widen the gap between them and the third place.
Twenty-six rounds of the league have been played, and there are still eight rounds left before the end. Flash Star ranks first with 62 points. The third place in the league is Ningtian Yongan. They currently have 55 points, seven points behind Flash Star.
Judging from the remaining schedule, only Lingnan Nanhai can be considered a strong team that can directly threaten them, and the other teams are not very strong.
Of course, relegation teams should not be underestimated.
But as long as Shining Star doesn't let up, there won't be much suspense about beating those teams in the league.
The only variable is the FA Cup final.
When the FA Cup reaches the final, it is no longer a game that determines the outcome, but becomes a home and away game.
According to the schedule determined by the draw, in the first round of the final, the Flash Stars will travel north to challenge Dashun Golden Arrow on Saturday, November 4.
The second leg of the final will be on Sunday, November 26, when Flash Stars return home to face Dashun Golden Arrow.
But to be honest, if the suspense of this second round final is lost, it will have little impact on the league.
The most important thing is the first round of the final.
And because of this final, the 30th round of the league match between Shining Star and Baishan Linchun Hongqi at home on the weekend will be postponed to December 3. Shining Star will once again have one game less than other promotion competitors. field.
Fortunately, the league games before and after the final were not played in midweek, so the physical impact on Flash Stars was slightly smaller.
The final round of the league was also postponed to Thursday, December 7 due to a conflict with the second leg of the FA Cup final.
But if Flash Star performed stably before, then the two rounds of make-up games after the second round of the FA Cup final may be meaningless.
Zhao Kangming's strategy is that before the first round of the FA Cup final, the team must not lose its chain, and must win all the remaining three games.
Fortunately, there is a full week between the international match day and the league match day, so in terms of physical fitness, Zhao Kangming does not have to worry too much.
Now that the four players who were transferred to the national team are not injured, that's even better.
Another situation that is beneficial to the Stars is that two of these three league games are at the home court of the Stars, so they have less disadvantages of traveling back and forth.
In the 27th round of the league on October 21, Flash Star faced Wuzhou Dongshan, a mid-to-lower team, at home, with Zhao Kangming making a slight rotation.
In the end, Flash Star easily defeated their opponents 3:0, but because Lingnan Nanhai and Ningtian Yongan also won their own games, the point difference was not further widened.
On the other hand, Sichuan Nan Chongshan, ranked fourth, lost to Flash Star 0:1 in the previous round and was tied with Xiaojiang Lulin in this round. It has been winless for two consecutive rounds and currently only has 51 points. It can be said that it is in the process of promotion. Already falling behind in the sprint phase.
The final two promotion places are likely to be produced by the three teams of Anton Shining Star, Lingnan Nanhai and Ningtian Yongan.
After playing this league game, there will be another league game on Thursday. These two games are very close to each other, but the Flash Stars are playing at home in these two league games, so they don’t have to travel back and forth in a short time. This is their schedule. Take advantage of arrangements.
Flash Star’s opponent in this round of league is Xiaojiang Lulin, which is ranked sixth.
Xiaojiang Green Forest is naturally not weak, and they also drew with fourth-place Sichuan Chongshan in the last round of the league, so Zhao Kangming fielded the strongest lineup he could field in this game.
Flashing Stars, who played with all their main players, did not disappoint. They defeated Xiaojiang Lulin 2:1 at home and continued their winning streak.
At the same time, Hu Lai scored a goal in this game. This goal was his twentieth goal in the Chinese League One this season.
Although Ivar Moses, who is second in the league's scorer list, has been in good form recently, scoring consecutive goals, bringing his total number of goals in the league to 16, Hulay still maintains a four-goal advantage over him on the scorer list. Leading edge.
Hu Lai is now only one goal away from Lin Gang's single-season scoring record in the Chinese League One for domestic players. Everyone feels that it will not be a problem for him to tie or even break this record.
Once Lin Gang's record is broken, he will also have the opportunity to break the Chinese League single-season scoring record set by Olivier Ferrier last season.
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After the game against Xiaojiang Lulin, although there is still one league game left to play, Flash Star is already preparing for the FA Cup final.
The FA Cup final is a two-legged system of home and away. The first leg of Flash Star is an away game, so Zhao Kangming’s strategy for the team is to set up a bus in the away game and try not to concede the ball, or concede as few goals as possible.
"...Although our opponents are very strong, it does not mean that we have to admit defeat in advance. The reason is simple, because we are also a participating team in the finals." Zhao Kangming stood in front of all the first-team players on the training ground and said, They were just getting ready to start a day of training. "Now that we have reached the finals, we can't just give up casually, right? Otherwise, why would we bother to reach the finals so hard? Why not give up at the beginning? Since we have reached the finals, no matter the strength gap, No matter how old we are, we have only one goal, and that is...the championship!”
Zhao Kangming said it categorically and as a matter of course.
It's as if Flash Star is really a team capable of competing for the FA Cup championship.
The players of the Flash Star team, which had eliminated two Chinese Super League teams in a row, especially after defeating Poseidon 2:1 in the away game, did not feel that there was anything inappropriate about the head coach's words.
If you think of giving up after reaching the semi-finals, that would be understandable.
But since they have reached the finals and want to give up, then such a person will definitely not be able to become a professional player, because he does not even have a basic competitive spirit.
"The offensive power of Dashun Golden Arrow is relatively strong, so we only do one thing when we go to the away game, and that is to defend, and defend with all our strength. If we only lose one goal in the end, then we have completed the task. If it is 0:0, then we will We won. So in the next week and a half, we will continue to strengthen our defensive training, just like before the semifinals.”
After boosting morale and arranging training tasks, Zhao Kangming asked assistant coach Chen Mo to take the whole team to warm up.
He himself took the other coaches and started to get busy on the training ground, putting out the facilities and equipment that would be used for training.
After doing this, he stood on the training ground and watched more than 20 first-team players warming up in the already biting cold wind in the morning. He suddenly felt very accomplished.
He used to be just an ordinary coach.
Although turning from a professional player to a coach is the first choice for many players after retiring, it is only after becoming a coach that they realize that things are not that simple. It is not that after receiving too much training from other coaches, one can learn without a teacher. How to be a coach.
At the beginning, he was just a grassroots youth training coach and only needed to be responsible for training.
Later he gradually became the head coach of the youth team and later the youth training director.
He stepped down from the training ground and became a manager.
Now, he is the head coach of a first-team team in the Chinese League One, and he has also led this team to rank first in the league and reach the FA Cup final.
This team includes veterans like Qin Lin, Mesozoic players like Li Tielin, and young people represented by Hu Lai and Zhang Qinghuan.
The distribution of the three generations of old, middle and young people is reasonable, with a perfect combination of experience, physical fitness and young people's energy.
And this was all built by him himself.
This team is the best embodiment of his football philosophy.
Now he is like a hard-working old farmer, watching the crops growing in his fields and looking forward to a good harvest.
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On October 30, Monday, Flash Star challenged the relegation team Nanjia Tianyu away from home.
Unlike what many people thought before, the Flash Stars did not undergo a major rotation in this game.
So even though they were playing away from home, even though Nanjia Tianyu was ranked 16th and in urgent need of relegation, they had a strong desire to fight.
However, Flash Star, with most of the main players starting, still defeated their opponents 4:1 in the away game and won an unexpected victory.
The reason why I say unexpected is because everyone originally thought that Zhao Kangming would give up this league game and concentrate on preparing for the first leg of the FA Cup final, just like they did before the FA Cup semi-finals.
Unexpectedly, Zhao Kangming did not do this, but prioritized ensuring the league.
His choice has made people speculate whether this means that Flash Star has given up on the FA Cup final?
After all, their opponents were strong, and the Flash Stars who were able to reach the finals had tried their best. The creative set-piece tactics were also exposed in the semi-finals. The Golden Arrow side must be prepared, and it is almost impossible to defeat the Chinese Super League team by playing tricks.
Not to mention that Golden Arrow is currently ranked first in the Chinese Super League, and its strength is completely different from that of Poseidon, which was ranked sixth.
There is such a big difference in strength between the two sides, and they still play at home. Why would Flash Star give up the league for a game that they must lose?
The league ensures promotion to the Premier League, and even if they lose the FA Cup final, no one will blame Zhao Kangming.
Based on this speculation, everyone believes that Dashun Golden Arrow is a sure winner of the Football Association Cup.
And they were really lucky to meet a Chinese League One team in the FA Cup final. This means that they do not have to spend too much time in the FA Cup final, ensuring that their main energy can be devoted to the league and compete with the Lingnan South China Tigers for the Chinese Super League championship.
Since the latter was eliminated by Dashun Golden Arrow in the Football Association Cup, he went all out in the league and immediately caused huge trouble for Golden Arrow. Now the two teams are inextricably locked in the league. Until the last moment, I don’t know who will win the league championship.
If Dashun Golden Arrow wants to successfully defend its title, it really cannot afford any negligence in the league.
Originally, the Football Association Cup final would be an important factor affecting them, but now that the opponent is a Chinese League One team... many fans of Dashun Golden Arrow felt that it was too much.
Try to end the championship suspense in the first round of the two-legged FA Cup final!
※※※PS, we are still in the double period, please vote for me!
(End of chapter)