Chapter 494 Should we give up the AFC Champions League?
After playing in the AFC Champions League in midweek, the Flash Stars rotated for the second round of the weekend's league, with most of the main players sitting on the bench.
This arrangement is not surprising to everyone. After all, after the AFC Champions League group stage starts, there will be double games in a week. With the thickness of the Shining Star bench, if they don’t rotate it, they might not use it for half a season, and they will run out of gas and energy... …No, the whole team collapsed.
So the Stars used a rotating lineup to challenge the Nanjiarui Lions away from home.
Then after a hard fight, they finally lost to their opponent 1:2.
Li Rong scored his first goal after joining Flash Star in this game, but he still failed to prevent the team's defeat.
After winning two consecutive games in the Super Cup and the first round of the league, Shining Stars suffered two consecutive losses in the AFC Champions League and the league. The mood of Shining Star fans was like riding a roller coaster. They had just risen to the clouds and were about to start. Plant down...
Fortunately, most Flash Star fans still have a good mentality. They know the strength and positioning of their team, and they also know the actual difficulties they are currently facing.
After all, in a consecutive week of double matches, they encountered strong opponents, so losing was normal.
Moreover, the season has just begun. Even if they lose the game, Flash Star is currently ranked eighth in the league and is still far away from the relegation zone. There is no need to panic.
Therefore, the mood of Flash Star fans is still very stable.
The discordant voices mainly come from the media.
Of course, the team lost, and the media has the right to comment on it, but the voice in the media now is not criticism, but a pessimistic prediction.
The media believes that with the thickness of Shining Star's bench and the current state of the two-line battle, the AFC Champions League may be a sweet trap for Shining Star.
The Stars are not optimistic about their relegation prospects this season.
The evidence is naturally not only the performance of Flash Star in the last two games. In the schedule that can be seen, people who know football can see at a glance the difficulties that Flash Star will encounter in the future.
At the beginning of the season when the players' physical reserves were the best, the Flash Stars encountered the AFC Champions League's consecutive double matches, which was a torture to the players' physical fitness and disrupted their game rhythm.
As a result, it is impossible to gain more points in the league standings.
Finally, the six group matches of the AFC Champions League ended in mid-April, and the Football Association Cup began again.
The most serious impact will come from this summer's Olympic Games.
Shining Star plays the youth card. Many outstanding young players made them invincible in the Chinese League One last season. However, there is also a hidden danger, that is, once the Olympic team wants to play a game, the main players of Shining Star will be transferred. players.
Although the Olympic football competition does not start until August 8, the Olympic team will have to train for a month before then to participate in the Olympic Games in August.
This means that the three main players of the Chinese Olympic team, Hu Lai, Chen Xingyi, and Wang Guangwei, will be taken away from Flash Star starting in July. They are also the main players of Flash Star.
By the way, there is also Junpei Morikawa, the main midfielder of the Japanese Olympic team, who should also be transferred to the Japanese Olympic team for training and to participate in Olympic games.
In addition, Zhang Qinghuan, who is only one year older than the Olympic age, may also be recruited by the National Olympic team as an over-age player to compete in the Olympics. After all, the tacit understanding between Zhang Qinghuan, Hu Lai, and Chen Xingyi can be seamlessly transplanted to the Olympic team. There will definitely not be the problem that Qin Lin was unable to integrate into the team last time he went to the Olympic team.
If Zhang Qinghuan is really called up to the Olympic team as an over-age player, Zhao Kangming will probably vomit blood.
This time, the team is missing five people, and half of the main lineup is gone...
How to play?
It is expected that they will basically miss at least seven league games. When they return to the team, there will only be seven rounds left in the league.
If Flash Star failed to maintain its position during the two months of competition without them, it would collapse. Then after Hu Lai and the others come back, they can really only fight for relegation - this is still a relatively good result, at least they can still fight for relegation.
The worse outcome may be that it's too late.
After all, the early stages of the league will also be affected by the AFC Champions League.
No matter how you look at it now, this first Chinese Super League season for Flash Stars is going to be hellish.
No wonder Zhao Kangming said after winning the Super Cup that the team's goal is still to avoid relegation.
And they may have to fight for relegation at the start of the league.
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On Wednesday, March 13, the Andong Provincial Sports Center hosted its first AFC Champions League game since its establishment.
Flash Stars, who are currently bottom of the group stage, take on third-placed Sydney Coast.
But Flash Star fans have mixed feelings about this game.
On the one hand, this is a moment worth remembering in the history of Anton football, and it is the glory of Anton football.
But on the other hand, it is still unclear whether the AFC Champions League is good or bad for today's Anton Flash.
Everyone hopes that Flash Star can perform well in the AFC Champions League, but they are worried that trying their best in the AFC Champions League will affect the subsequent league games.
If there were no Olympics this year, they wouldn't have to worry so much, because even if they were ranked low in the league due to the influence of the AFC Champions League in the early stage, they could slowly catch up later. At least relegation should not be a problem.
But with the Olympics, Hu Lai and the others will have to miss at least seven rounds, and their impact on the team cannot be ignored.
After all, there are only thirty rounds in the Chinese Super League, and they will not be able to play a quarter of the games.
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"Recently, there is a saying on the Internet that we should give up the AFC Champions League. The reason is naturally because we have sacrificed the league in order to play in the AFC Champions League. With our strength, we will not be able to go far in the AFC Champions League, so why should we do it? Why not put this energy into the league if we are destined to be eliminated? If we completely abandon the AFC Champions League and only play in the league, the prospect of relegation will be bright..."
In the locker room, in the last five minutes before the game started, Zhao Kangming asked the players: "Are you willing to accept this strategy? Give up the AFC Champions League and concentrate on playing in the league."
Everyone shook their heads: "I don't want to!"
They have actually heard more or less what Director Zhao said online, and have discussed similar issues in private.
Therefore, Zhao Kangming's current question has already been answered among the players.
"Actually, the club and the coaching staff have no specific requirements for the team's performance in the AFC Champions League." Zhao Kangming continued after getting the players' answers: "But this does not mean giving up on the AFC Champions League. I think For us, the AFC Champions League is a very rare opportunity, an opportunity for us to play against the best teams in Asia. Just like last season, we were a Chinese League One team, but we were in the Football Association Cup and the Chinese Super League. So I have different opinions from those outside. I don’t think playing in the AFC Champions League is a bad thing for us, and I don’t think playing in the AFC Champions League will prevent us from relegation. On the contrary, as a newly promoted team, we will not be relegated. We can learn a lot in the AFC Champions League, and these gains will in turn help us perform better in the league, right?”
The team members nodded.
In fact, they feel this very deeply. After playing against Haihe Shuanggang and Lingnan Poseidon in the Football Association Cup last season, everyone felt that they had significantly improved both in terms of ability and mentality.
This kind of improvement gave the Flash Star team a crushing advantage in the Chinese League One. They completely crushed their opponents in the sprint stage of the league and maintained a stable performance, without allowing competitors to take advantage of them.
"But if we just play the AFC Champions League with the mentality of coping with the game, then I believe we will not learn even a little bit from these games. So even if we have no performance requirements in the AFC Champions League, I I hope everyone will give their best in every game...' After the midweek AFC Champions League, what to do with the weekend league is something that the coaching staff should consider, not your players. You just need to give your best in every game. The same is true for competitions, go all out and focus on nothing!”
After he finished speaking, Qin Lin, as the captain who was about to start the game, stood up, turned to his teammates and said loudly: "No matter what our final result is in the AFC Champions League, if we leave nothing behind, , then we are here to make up the numbers. ! It’s just a waste of time for us to participate in the AFC Champions League! When your relatives and friends ask you, how do you feel about playing in the AFC Champions League? If you don’t go out...you’ll be in trouble!”
Hearing him say this, the Flash Star players in the locker room burst into laughter.
Amidst the roar of laughter, Qin Lin raised his voice: "Come out now! Don't let the 'friends' who come from afar wait too long!"
Hu Lai jumped up and said loudly: "There are friends coming from afar... Even though they are far away, they will be killed!" (End of Chapter)