Chapter 518 An “important” game
With Luo Kai assisting Barragan's goal, Hedong Thunder finally tied with Anton Shining Star 2:2 in the away game.
Chen Xingyi still fulfilled his promise and did not let Luo Kai score under his defense.
Judging from the ranking gap between Hedong Thunder and Anton Flash Star, it seems that it is a pity that the former did not win the game.
But after watching the game, anyone will feel that the score of 2:2 may be a satisfactory score for Hedong Thunder.
After Barragan received an assist from Luo Kai to equalize the score, they were not able to pursue the victory and finally win the game. Instead, Chen Xingyi almost stole the ball using a counterattack opportunity.
If goalkeeper Hao De hadn't shown his bravery and used the instep of Chen Xingyi's single-handed ball to rub it out of the baseline, they would have left the away game without a point.
You must know that although Flash Star has the home court advantage, because they have the AFC Champions League group stage to play, they have always played double matches a week, fighting on two fronts, which consumes more physical energy. The players are generally better than those who only play in domestic leagues. Hedong Leiden is even more tired.
As a result, the Hedong Thunder were disgraced by the Flash Stars in the away game. In the end, they were able to take away a point. They should indeed feel lucky rather than dissatisfied.
On the other hand, Flash Star was a little dissatisfied with their failure to win the game at home.
Chen Xingyi, who was single-handedly saved, was kneeling on the ground and didn't get up for a long time.
Many people were surprised to see Flash Star's vigorous performance at their home court. After all, this team is a newly promoted team and they have experienced more games than other opponents.
Judging from their two-way battle in the league and the AFC Champions League, it can be said that if the Flash Star team had not been dominated by young players and their physical condition was not bad, but if they were replaced by a team with an older average age, their performance might not be as good as Flash Star. .
For example, Dashun Golden Arrow, which had the largest average age in the Chinese Super League last season, has no choice but to give up the domestic league and focus on the AFC Champions League this season when they are fighting on two fronts.
So they won the first place in the group in the AFC Champions League, but fell to tenth in the Chinese Super League.
With the average age of the Golden Arrow's main lineup, it is indeed difficult to cope with double matches in a row.
After the game, the Hedong media were satisfied with the performance of Hedong Thunder and said that they and Flash Star teamed up to give a wonderful game.
But Anton Media was not very satisfied. They were very sorry that they could not win.
At this time, they did not think about Flash Star being a newly promoted team. Flash Star’s goal this season was to avoid relegation. Even if they did not win this game, their league ranking is still seventh, which is quite far away from the relegation zone...
Which relegation team would feel dissatisfied just because they failed to win at home and finish third in the league?
The local media in Anton seem to be little by little affected and changed by this team...
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After seven rounds of the league, the AFC Champions League group stage is also over, but Flash Star still cannot escape the fate of double matches in a week - the Football Association Cup is coming again.
As a Chinese Super League team, they only entered the FA Cup in the fourth round this season.
In the draw, they were drawn with a Chinese second-tier team.
The luck of the draw was pretty good, and I didn't directly compete with the Chinese Super League team.
After all, the FA Cup is a completely random draw, so theoretically it is entirely possible for the Chinese Super League team and the Chinese Super League team to meet in the fourth round.
Regarding the FA Cup match, Zhao Kangming is not like playing in the AFC Champions League, hoping to learn something from it - last season, he also hoped that the team could adapt to playing in the Chinese Super League in advance by playing against Chinese Super League teams in the FA Cup. But now that they are already a Chinese Super League team, they naturally do not have this need.
He also didn't think about defending the FA Cup. To be honest, that didn't mean much. For the shining stars this season, the FA Cup has really become like a piece of cake.
Considering the intensive schedule of this season, Zhao Kangming decided to give up the FA Cup game from the beginning.
Of course, giving up does not mean giving up the game directly. Besides, it is also the Football Association Cup. Although it is a bit useless, it is still no problem to use it to train the team and create more training opportunities for the substitute players.
Therefore, as the defending champion of this event, Flash Star fielded a full substitute lineup when they faced the Chinese second-division team Plateau Snow Mountain in the fourth round.
Even though Flashing Star is an all-substitute lineup, it is still much stronger than Plateau Snow Mountain.
As the only professional team in Plateau Province, Plateau Snow Mountain does not even have its own fixed home court.
Nominally, they represent Plateau Province in the competition, but whether it is daily training or competition, they are wandering in various cities in the mainland.
Last season, they rented a university football field for training and games in Jiu'an City, Hexi Province. The players usually live in the university dormitory and use the card to eat in the school cafeteria like college students. Training is held at the university's football field. The game also directly uses the university's football field as its home court.
Why choose to rent the university's stadium for game training because the rent is relatively low.
This season they moved to Qingtang City, Qingnan Province, and continued to find a university to serve as their training base and home court.
Many times, apart from their names and sponsors, they have nothing to do with Plateau Province.
But in fact, the club has always wanted to return to its real home court to play. Unfortunately, the altitude of the plateau is too high. If they really set their home court there, other teams will refuse to participate in the game.
Out of consideration for the health and safety of the players, the Football Association will naturally not allow them to set up their home court in Langri, the provincial capital of the plateau with an altitude of more than 3,500 meters.
That’s why the plateau snowy mountains are like homeless children that no one wants.
At the same time, because it is impossible to set up the home court in Plateau Province, sponsors from Plateau Province are also considering divestment. After all, a team cannot bring benefits and reputation to the place where the home stadium is located. If it cannot even play local games, how can it truly represent the team? What about local football?
In short, although Shining Star played with all substitutes, they faced the Plateau Snow Mountains where even normal training could not be guaranteed and rumors of sponsors withdrawing made people panic. They faced a slight high resistance in the away game and still defeated their opponents 3:0.
The reason why Zhao Kangming let all the important players rest and didn't even take them to Qingtang City was so that they wouldn't have to fearlessly waste their energy in games where they didn't even play.
After all, there is still a relatively important game for Flash Stars to play next, and that game is also an away game.
In the eighth round of the league, Flash Stars challenged Lingnan Poseidon away from home.
The reason why it is more important to the Flash Stars is not because of the grudge between the two teams.
In fact, for these two teams, most of the grievances have ended after the FA Cup match last season.
Zhao Kangming has been respected and welcomed by Poseidon fans. Sun He, who let Hu Lai go, has also been dismissed. Now there are really few gimmicks to hype this game.
Even the idea of revenge cannot be hyped up.
After all, there was a reason why Flash Star defeated Poseidon in that FA Cup match. Poseidon Club was indeed wrong to expel Zhao Kangming, and also used insulting language to force Hu Lai to leave the team. Poseidon himself was at fault first. .
People defeated Poseidon with this kind of mentality. What can you, Poseidon, do to take revenge?
If every time he loses a game, it can be regarded as "vengeance"... then in Poseidon's hatred list, Anton Flashing Star, who has only played against Poseidon once, will not be ranked in any case.
Since there is no gimmick to speak of, the media's attention to this game is just average, which is not at the same level as the three games in eight days between Dashun Golden Arrow and Flash Star.
The reason why Zhao Kangming still believes that this game is very important to the team is because the Flash Star needs to "reserve" some points before competing with the Golden Arrow and the Olympic Games.
in case.
During the Olympic training and competition, if Flash Star loses consecutive games, then with the current points to support it, it will not be too miserable and fall into the mud.
To put it simply, the Flash Stars must try their best to fight for every point they can win in the league.
Zhao Kangming himself was not satisfied with the failure to win the Hedong Thunder at home, not to mention the local media in Anton.
He originally hoped to defeat Hedong Thunder, which was third in the league, at home... but the three points he got turned into one point. Zhao Kangming felt so hateful...
In order to win the away game against Poseidon, Zhao Kangming started preparations in advance this time, letting all the main players rest at home and recharge their batteries before following him to Lingnan City to challenge Poseidon away from home.
He put out the strongest lineup he could, so murderous. It wasn't for revenge against Poseidon, it was just that Poseidon happened to be blocking his way to gain points.
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Life for Lingnan Poseidon has not been easy this season.
Last season they finished sixth. Although they did not qualify for the AFC Champions League, their ranking was in the middle and upper reaches of all 16 Chinese Super League teams.
Although it is regrettable to be eliminated by a Chinese Football Association Cup team, with their strength, it may be difficult to defeat Dashun Golden Arrow in the final.
Thinking about it this way, I feel that the team's performance last season was quite good and quite satisfactory.
Originally, all Poseidon fans expected the team's performance to reach another level this season, steadily improving one step at a time, until they qualified for the AFC Champions League and became a strong contender for the league championship.
But after the start of the new season, Poseidon's performance went downhill, and they were completely different from last season.
The team is currently ranked twelfth in the league standings. This ranking is exactly double the team's final ranking last season. I wonder if it is a trick of fate... It is particularly ironic.
Club general manager Zhang Qiang has also been having a difficult time recently.
Several signings during the transfer period have now proven to be relatively unsuccessful. Not only did they fail to enhance the team's strength, but several players let go also caused the team's strength to decline.
Of course, what troubled him the most was Zhao Kangming.
Seeing Zhao Kangming shine in Anton, leading this young team to rank higher than Poseidon in the first Chinese Super League season, and also won the right to qualify in the AFC Champions League group stage and advance to the knockout rounds... It was impossible for Zhang Qiang to feel better.
It was the disagreement between him and Zhao Kangming that forced Zhao Kangming away.
As a result, the people who were forced to leave are now prospering, and this comparison is particularly heartbreaking.
Not only the public opinion of fans, but also a voice within the club - we should invite Zhao Kangming back as the team's head coach and reintroduce his football philosophy back to Poseidon. Poseidon is a club that cultivates a large number of young players. We naturally have an advantage over other clubs in the reserve of young talents. After Zhao Kangming came back, everything was familiar to him, he didn't have to adapt at all, and he could produce results quickly. And based on the relationship between Zhao Kangming and Hu Lai and others, if he can return to Poseidon, then maybe we can bring Hu Lai back too?
Sounds reasonable, but there's a problem.
If Zhao Kangming is invited back, it means that the football philosophy that Zhao Kangming adheres to has won victory at Poseidon Club.
Zhang Qiang, who disagrees with his philosophy and has huge differences, as a representative of another school of football philosophy, should he be killed first to sacrifice to heaven in order to fully demonstrate the sincerity of Poseidon Club to welcome Zhao Kangming back?
Therefore, as long as Zhang Qiang is in office for a day, it is impossible for him to agree to the club's decision to invite Zhao Kangming back. After all, it is impossible for him to "kill myself".
Because that meant that he had to admit that his route was wrong and he had to be responsible for it, so he had no choice but to leave get out of class and walk away.
So for Zhang Qiang, the next game is also a very important game.
That may be related to his fate at this club.
If Poseidon can defeat Flash Star, he can also prove to the board of directors that although Zhao Kangming did a good job at Flash Star, the route I took at Poseidon is not bad either.
In the football world, victory is the most convincing evidence.
※※※PS, it’s the end of the month, please give me a monthly pass~~
(End of chapter)