Shenhua hand Chinese football championship to Shandong in closing minutes
Thursday, 4th December 2008 ~ Cameron ~ Link ~ Comments (0)
Just one victory in their last five games and a shocking penalty miss saw Shanghai Shenhua hand the Chinese Super League title on a plate to rivals Shandong Luneng on the final day of the 2008 season on Sunday afternoon. (video highlights)Shandong started the day two points ahead of Shenhua in the table, and were expected to beat mid-table Guangzhou at home to wrap up the title. Shenhua knew that a victory against local rivals Zhejiang Lvcheng, combined with Shandong failing to win their match, would see them snatch the title on goal difference. So with an air of tension, all games in the final round of the season kicked off simultaneously at 3.30pm, to avoid the potential for match-fixing allegations to arise if teams already knew the results of other games affecting their final standing.
Thanks to Kylie Minogue, Shenhua were playing at the soulless Yuanshen Athletics Stadium in Pudong instead of their spiritual home, Hongkou. An air of tension filled the air, as home fans had one ear on how events were unfolding elsewhere – news of a goal in Shandong's match against Guangzhou would surely poop the party. Just to add even more spice to the already flavorsome mix, it was also a local derby for Shenhua as their opponents, Zhejiang Lvcheng, are based just down the road in Hangzhou. Ominously, since their promotion to the CSL last year, all the previous three league games between Shenhua and LvCheng had been drawn.
Shenhua started positively and indeed spent much of the first half camped in their opponents box. It was no surprise when Paraguyan striker Justo Rolando Meza put the home side in front after 10 minutes with a well-taken header. Shenhua continued to push forward, only for Zhejiang to equalize after a rather fortuitous break of the ball fell to Algerian striker Karim Benounes who slotted home neatly to send the sizable away support behind the goal into raptures.
Somewhat perturbed, The Blue Devils, Shenhua's largest fan group, then took advantage of their opponents being the only other team in the league to come from a city speaking a similar dialect to their own, by abusing the visiting fans in Shanghainese. An angry chanted chorus "Lvcheng Dui, gang lu Dui!" (Greentown team, stupid cock team!" This drew amusement from the rest of the derby match crowd.
Encouraged by news that Shandong were being held 0-0, Shenhua pushed forward again. Chance after chance went begging, before Cheng Liang finally put the Blues in front again on the stroke of time with another header. Half-time, 2-1 to Shenhua, and critically, Shandong were still drawing 0-0 with Guangzhou. The stands buzzed with excitement at half time – Shenhua were 45 minutes away from their third league title.
The second half followed the first half closely. Shenhua controlled the game and wasted numerous chances. On around the 65 minute mark, a blatant handball resulted in a penalty to Shenhua and the chance to put the result beyond doubt. The anticipation was electric as Hamilton Ricard stepped up to take the penalty. The crowd waited with baited breath and bit their nails. Zhejiang's players looked on knowing the game was as good as over if it went in. All eyes in the stadium focused on the ball as it was placed on the spot. With the score still tied at Shandong, the stakes couldn't be higher. Ricard stepped up….
And fired his shot right at the Zhejiang keeper.
The crowd could scarcely believe Shenhua had scored yet another chance to make the game safe. And it was inevitable when Zhejiang equalized with just 15 minutes to go, the product of some rather slack defending at the back. Shenhua huffed and puffed for the remainder of the game, and young striker Gao Lin spurned a great chance when he elected to dummy the ball rather than shoot; his attempt to wrong-foot the visitors defence failed as there was no team-mate there to take advantage. Try as they might, Shenhua could not find a winner. And with that… the title slipped through their grasp. Final whistle – Shenhua 2-2 Zhejiang Lvcheng – and, cruelly, Shandong 0-0 Guangzhou. In other words, had Shenhua won, the title was theirs and the whole season essentially turned on Ricard's missed penalty.
If the game itself was not hard enough to swallow, the run-in made things even worse. Shenhua had their chances to at least go into the final game in pole position. But they won just one of their last five games, and even contrived to throw away a four goal lead in their match relegated Liaoning two weeks ago, who scored four times in the last 30 minutes to draw 4-4. A 0-0 draw to fallen giants Dalian last week did Shenhua no favours either – it was a game Shenhua were expected to win, Dalian only just avoiding relegation this year.
Shenhua have the consolation of joining Shandong, Beijing Guo'an and Tianjin Teda in next seasons revamped Asian Champions League. But that was scant consolation for the fans, some of whom found the disappointment all too much. Xiao Tan, a 26-year-old Blue Devils member, told China Sports Today, "I cried today. At least if we had won, and Shandong won, it would have been better. But not like this. And that penalty miss… good heavens. I have no idea."
Shenhua's reputation for being bottlers and under-achievers is, it has to be said, well-deserved. Former coach Wu Jingui told the Shanghai Daily, "Shenhua takes the lead but doesn't know how to keep it. It has been a problem for the team for years," adding, "The team tends to make mistakes at critical moments."
Shandong overtake Shenhua in the all-time championship table to claim their third title, on the back of wins in 1999 and 2006. A new season awaits Shenhua however and the team can take comfort from some very encouraging performances of attacking football. If they can carry this form into next year, they will once again be among the front runners.
Next season's CSL will offer more derby action to Shenhua – Jiangsu Shuntian of Nanjing return to the top league after an absence of 15 years. The 2009 season will kick off next March.
Picture of Hamilton Ricard courtesy of Sina Sports
Tags: CSL, football, Shanghai Shenhua, soccer, sports, yuanshen stadium
Four-way battle for CSL 2008 run-in
Thursday, 30th October 2008 ~ Cameron ~ Link ~ Comments (0)
Shenhua players celebrate their 3-2 comeback against Guangzhou
Certainly, anything is possible in the last six games to decide the destiny of the championship. To illustrate this, the past two weeks saw form side Shenhua overhaul Shandong's six-point lead to currently sit one point ahead of the 2006 champions. They achieved this by beating Shandong at home 3-2, and Guangzhou by the same score line on Sunday night, despite being two goals down after 35 minutes.
Shenhua's third victory was a more hollow one, a 3-0 win against Wuhan awarded by default following the Hubei side's decision to withdraw from the league in protest against an eight-game suspension handed out to blockbuster signing from Shenhua, defender Li Wei Feng. All of Wuhan's previous results this season have been nullified and a 3-0 victory awarded to all opponents. Fortunately, of the games Wuhan played before their expulsion, they had lost all against the top three so the standings were unaffected.
The form table says it all. Shandong have taken just nine points from their last six games, whereas Shenhua have won five and drawn one of their last six fixtures. Early season pace setters, and very much underdogs Shaanxi Zhongxin, have ten points out of a possible 18 from their last six, but they remain very much in contention. Shenhua currently sit top on 51 points, Shandong just one point behind, and Shaanxi on 48 points. Tianjin Teda, on 44 points, are in with an outside chance if they can replicate Shenhua's recent spurt to the top, but it seems unlikely. In a rather unfortunate metaphor, considering the CSL's scandal-hit history, your correspondent's money is split between Shenhua and Shandong for the title.
This weekend sees Shaanxi host Shenhua--which is surely a must-win game for the Xi'an-based side. Don't forget Shaanxi used to be called Inter Shanghai before changing name and relocating west in 2006 so that will add spice to the occasion. There is also the small matter of Xi'an being one of China's footballing hot beds in terms of large and vociferous supports – check out this clip of them burning a Beijing Guoan team jersey after a game. They have done far worse in the past. Shandong host 12-placed Changsha in a game which they are expected to win. There will be many twists and turns on the pitch before the end of the season, and let's hope no more off-field mishaps distract from what should be an exciting climax to the season.
Tags: Chinese Football, CSL, CSL 2008, Shaanxi Guoli, Shaanxi Zhongxin, Shandong Luneng, shanghai shenhua
Dong Fangzhuo leaves Man U for Dalian
Saturday, 30th August 2008 ~ Cameron ~ Link ~ Comments (0)
In a move as unsurprising as it was predictable, Manchester United's Chinese international striker Dong Fangzhuo has left the club by mutual consent following a rather fruitless five years with the reigning English champions. Dong will re-join his former club, eight-time Chinese Champions Dalian Shide who are currently languishing at the wrong end of the CSL table.Dong was ineligible to play for Manchester when he first signed due to work permit issues, and was farmed out to Belgian side Royal Antwerp to take advantage of slacker employment regulations. He spent four seasons in Belgium, all but one of them in the second division, making 70 appearances and scoring 34 goals – a respectable rate of goal every two games. However, as even the most casual football observer would doubtlessly concur, the gulf in class between the Belgian second division and the top of the English Premiership is massive and Dong made only three appearances for Man U once he was granted a work permit, and none in an important match.
Reaction in the UK sports press to the 23-year-old's departure was somewhat unkind, with The Guardian claiming Dong would be as "remembered as one of the worst players to have ever appeared for the club." Whilst such a description may seem a little harsh for the man who scored China's only goal of the Olympic Football tournament, there can be little doubt that the main motivation behind his signing was a business, and not a sporting one. One hopes that Dong's confidence is not shattered by the naked greed of Premiership chairmen and their desire to empty the pockets of China's long-suffering football fans.
Elsewhere in Chinese football, more foreign disappointment Shanghai Shenhua's highly-rated young goalkeeper Wang Dalei is to return to China following un unsuccessful trial with top Dutch side PSV Eindhoven. The 19-year-old keeper, who had a trial with Inter Milan two years ago, is one of China's most highly-rated youngsters and will be in Shanghai's squad as it makes the short trip south for a derby match against Hangzhou's Zhejiang Lvcheng. A match report of this game will follow on China Sports Today.
Following a lay-off for the Olympics, the Chinese Super League gets back into full swing this week with a full fixture card. Surprise leaders Shanxi Baorong take on Henan Jianye, basement boys Liaoning FC face Changsha Ginde, struggling Dalian Shide take on Tianjin Teda, newly-promoted Chengdu Blades face capital side, Beijing Guoan, Wuhan Guanggu host Shenzhen Shangqingyin, and last season's second division chamipions Guangzhou Yiyao take on second-placed Shandong Luneng.
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Olympic football kicks off... but who will be watching?
Wednesday, 6th August 2008 ~ Cameron ~ Link ~ Comments (1)
The Olympic countdown has been a long and tedious one but mercifully for football (soccer) fans like ourselves it reaches zero a day earlier – the men's Olympic Football tournament kicks off tomorrow evening. And fans of the ladies game need wait no longer - the action commences tonight in Tianjin.Regardless of the merits of women's football, the focus in China will be on the men and specifically of course, the home team. You can read a great many opinion pieces, blog entries, and all manner of football punditry endlessly dissecting the reasons for China's miserable failure to find 11 players from their massive population good enough to make a respectable mark on the world game. But there is a question one will seldom see asked amongst all this pontificating.
Does Olympic football matter and does anyone really care about it?
The answer in the eyes of this columnist is a resounding no. Olympic football has always been the black sheep of international football competition, with a long and awkward relationship with the governing body of football, FIFA. The tournament itself is basically a glorified youth world cup, with each side able to field three players over the age of 23. Whilst that allows a few super-stars, including Brazil's Ronaldinho, to appear at this year's Olympics, it prevents full national sides from appearing – this is something FIFA does not want to see hence its insistence on the under-23 rule to stop the Olympics overshadowing the premier world football event, the World Cup.
If you ask any football fan, "who won the last world cup?" most would be able to say Italy. If you were to ask who were the gold medalists at football in Sydney 2004, the chances are few would be able to come up with the winner. Frankly, I can't even remember myself and I have been a football aficionado as long as I can remember. Whilst the tournament is a useful pointer towards emerging young talents, there is an increasing tendency amongst the big European clubs to refuse to release their players for any tournament without considerable arm-twisting. With the Olympic football tournament well down the pecking order in terms of footballing prestige, its been no surprise to see several club sides reluctant to release their players for this tourney. Fixture congestion is a hot topic in football these days, and with utterly disgusting money-grabbing schemes like the EPL's game-39 being put forward recently, this all adds more pressure on clubs to avoid the ignominy of their young stars getting injured at the Olympics. In short, the Olympics is the pinnacle for all sports—except football, so why bother?
Tim Vickery, the BBC's South America's football reporter, points out that the Olympics is serious business for the South Americans. It's certainly taken more seriously in that most roasting of football hotbeds. However, Brazil have never won an Olympic gold. How can a team win five world cups but not one Olympic gold? Perhaps it's not so important after all.
For the Chinese, the argument that Olympic football is of little consequence in the grand scheme of world soccer will fall on deaf ears. One can only imagine the entire Chinese football world being torn between diametrically opposed emotions – the burning desire to make a decent account of themselves at their own party, with the cold, paralyzing fear of losing yet more footballing face and making an undignified early exit. Shanghai Shenhua's Li Weifeng, Shandong Luneng's Han Peng and Charlton Athletic's Zheng Zhi are the three over-age players in China's squad who will have hopes of Olympian proportions placed on their shoulders in an effort to get past New Zealand, Belgium and (gasp) Brazil and meet their coaches' goal. With almost casual disregard for his own sanity, Chinese Olympic football coach Yin Tiesheng has stated that he believes a top-four finish should be achievable for his team. Such foolish aims will only serve to compound the team's inevitable failure.
China kick off their campaign against New Zealand in Shenyang tomorrow night.
Tags: football, Olympics, soccer
Match report: Shanghai Shenhua v Dalian Shide
Monday, 14th July 2008 ~ Cameron ~ Link ~ Comments (0)
For Dalian are a team in decline. With only one league title in the last five years, the north-eastern side were nowhere near the championship last season or the year before. And this season, they currently languish 13th in the 16-team CSL (Chinese Soccer League). Indeed, this fact was not lost on the Shenhua fans, who gleefully taunted the small band of Dalian travelling fans with chants of Dalian dui jiang ji! (Dalian team, get relegated!) and Dalian dui sha bi le ba, Xian Zai hou hui lai bu ji le ba (Dalian team, now realise you are stupid c*nts, but its too late you find this out )
The game itself was worthy of such terrace banter. Dalian got off to a solid start and looked the more promising team in the opening stages. However Shenhua broke the deadlock on 20 minutes when Chen Liang headed in from a corner to send the home fans wild. The celebrations had barely ceased when Jiang Kun added another, scoring an absolute topper of a goal 60 seconds after the restart. The ball was squared to him at pace from the right and he hit a first time shot from about 25 yards out which screamed into the top corner, leaving the Dalian keeper without a chance in hell. Dalian were on the ropes already and they never recovered from these two sucker punches for the rest of the match.
Proceedings remained very entertaining however and an audacious long range overhead kick from Costa Rican striker Erik Scott hit the post and went out. The action was flowing thick and fast by this point with Shenhua uncharacteristically appearing to forget they were two goals ahead.
Following half time, Dalian were beginning to look like they were running out of ideas. Scott again went close, waiting for the ball to come down at the edge of the box before hitting a clean shot but was denied by a great save from the Dalian keeper. Honduran Emil Martinez really should have scored when fellow central American Scott threaded a ball to him into the penalty box, but the goalie pulled of a great close-range save to keep the score at two-nil. However it was no surprise when Shenhua added a third on the 58th minute following a bit of a goalmouth scramble. The ball was played in from a corner and headed onto the bar, and amidst flailing limbs, the ball fell to defender Du Wei at the edge of the six yard box and he knocked it to finish Dalian off.
From then on the game was completely over as a contest and the pace dropped off rather abruptly. The steamy, humid Saturday night had also taken its tool on the spectators and the players as everyone just went through the motions during the closing stages. Dalian grabbed a late and somewhat undeserved consolation goal right at the death, but by then the Shenhua faithful were in great voice: 3-1 against the once-mighty Dalian was quite a result. Check out the match highlights - and don't miss Jiang Kun's fantastic second goal.
Shenhua have now won seven of their eight home games this season and results elsewhere this weekend see them sit third in the table just three points off leaders Shaanxi Barong. A combination of a break for the Olympics and their next games being on the road mean that Shenhua do not play their next home game until September 28.
Photo courtesy of Ryan Pollack
Tags: Dalian Shide, football, hongkou stadium, Shanghai Shenhua, soccer