Asian Football

A rather uneventful round in the CSL with no major changes in the top 4 positions.  

Guangzhou Hengda continue their dominance with another win and go 4 pts clear at the top.  Also have brought in another expensive foreign signing (Lucas Barrios from Dortmund), which means that Cleo will be released probably.  Shanghai Shenhua record a valuable away draw as their off-field issues seem to have settled down for this week.

In League One Chongqing pick up a win against Beijing Baxi after two earlier losses.  Martinez (formerly from Beijing Guoan) was cheered by the Beijing crowd wanting him to play again for Guoan.  League leaders Shanghai Tellace have their first loss of the season but remain 2 pts clear.

In the CSL all the talk is off the pitch: Guangzhou Hengda sack their succesful coach Lee Jangsoo and hire Marcello Lippi, and Drogba seems certain to come to Shanghai Shenhua.

On pitch only Beijing Guoan seems to have found some bottle and move into second place with a win of Dalian Aerbin, Guoan are now 2 pts behind Hengda who could only draw with Shandong Luneng (Hengda resting players for the ACL game against Tokyo next week).

In China League One Chongqing FC thrash Fujian Smart Hero(!) 3-0.  Killen not on the scoring cards but had a few scoring chances, subbed at 60 mins.

Drogba now officially confirmed as moving to Shanghai Shenhua, who could really do with the help as they flirt with the drop zone.

Otherwise Guangzhou Hengda continue their dominance in the CSL and Beijing Guoan edge into second place, while Guangzhou Fuli drop to 3rd after an away loss (no surprises there).

In ths CSL more off-pitch interest than on-pitch: media frenzy on Drogba, dodgy dealings connected with the owner of Guangzhou Hengda, Hengda also manage to wheedle an arrangement so that they can have an extra foreign player on their squad (all other teams can't as they are not playing in the ACL).

On pitch Hengda continue to rack up the wins, this time away with a 0-3 thumping handed out to a testy Liaoning Whowin. Both Beijing Guoan and Guangzhou Fuli slip up at home, allowing Jiangsu Sainty (who beat Guoan) to sneak into 2nd place, but now 7 points behind Hengda.

*Yawn* more big names or ex big names going to the CSL in the mid-season transfer window.

On the pitch, major excitement as Guangzhou Hengda DRAW AWAY to cellar dwellers Shanghai Shenxin.

Jiangsu can't capitalise as they also DRAW AT HOME to perennial strugglers Shanghai Shenhua, so the lead remains at 7 points.

Beijing Guoan clinch a win at home to Guangzhou Fuli who have a shocking away form but remain in 3rd place, while Fuli naturally slip further away from the leading pack (4 pts off the top three).

Meanwhile in China One the teams I vaguely follow are Billy-Harris-mediocre:  Chongqing get a good win away but only claw their way up to mid-table (8th), while the two teams with the best English names: Fujian Smart Hero and Guangdong Sunray Cave wallow at 10th and 11th repectively.

Other real news is that Huang Bowen has moved from Jeonbuk Motors to Gunagzhou Hengda, who have also signed A YOUNGSTER (22) Korean Kim Young-Gwon - presumably as an investment for the future (yes - that's right. Crazy isn't it?)

Drogba arrives amid much hoopla and expectation - it works because the woeful Shanghai Shenua beat visitors and bitter rivals Beijing Guaon 3-1 at Fortress Hongkou.  And that's without the ex-Chav even playing (next week or end of the month I think).

Eleswhere in the derby weekend of the CSL, Dalian Shide beat Dalian Aerbin 3-2, Hangzhou fall at home to high flyers Jiangsu Shuntian 1-2 and the Cantonese Conflict between Guangzhou Hengda and Guangzhou Fuli kicks off tonight.  Pwopa nawty!

There was no follow-up to the Felipe story, but Daniel passed his medical at Police Utd yesterday. Reports say that Daniel should put pen to paper in the next few days.

I guess nothing came from that Getafe trial for Daniel then.

Red card for this: 

http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2012/jul/19/japan-female-atheletes-economy-class

Daniel's signing confirmed today. 18-mth deal, through to end of 2013 season.

CSL round 18.  GZ Hengda notch a 2-1 win away to bottom placed Henan Jianye (yawn), but Jiangsu Shuntian match the win so remain 4 pts back in 2nd.

BJ Guoan build on their sliding streak with a loss at home to Hangzhou so drop to 5th place, while GZ Fuli fall victims to the Drogba effect and can only draw 1-1 with SH Shenhua following Drogba coming off the bench and setting up the equaliser. Perhaps a mini revival now for the Blue Devils.

In China One Chongqing Lifan get their revenge over Killen's Chongqing FC with a 3-1 win over their derby rivals to restore parity following the reverse 4-1 score at the begiining of the season. 

Has the Drogba effect really taken hold?  Shenhua continue their reversal of muppetry-form and get a valuable 2-2 draw AWAY to leaders Guangzhou Evergrande.

Beijing Guoan lose away to local rivals Tianjin (2-1), while GZ Fuli pick up a valuable away point at Hangzhou with another 2-2 draw.

Tonight Jiangsu Sainty travel to Dalian Shide to see if they can close the gap on GZ Evergrande to a mere 2 points.

...have to admit that Drogba might be helping to make this an interesting competition this season.

The last few weeks has seen some balance restored to both CSL and China One with the runaway leadrs being reeled in by the chasing packs.  Shenhua have been undefeated since the Drogba came (and even Anelka has lifted his game).

However GZ Evergrande and Shanghai Far East have re-gained their mojos this weekend and remain in front of their leagues (5pts 4 pts gaps respectively).

Eight more games to come so it's all getting a bit angsty.

In China One Chongqing get a home game after three away games in a row but can only manage a 0-0 draw against lowly Beijing Baxi.

Killen and Martinez miss the game through accumulated yellow cards/red card (not sure who got what  - I didn't see anything earlier about this) - which exposes tha lack of fire power from Chongqing.

In CSL GZ Hengda stutter to a draw at home to allow Jiangsu, Guizhou, Beijing Guoan and GZ Fuli to catch up with their wins.

Troussier has gone back to Paris for two weeks on a "private matter" - speculation that he won't be back as manager for Shenzhen.

"??" SB!

China One starts up again (as does CSL) after the international break.

Killen scores twice to give Chongqing a valuable 2-0 win at home to Tianjin.  The win is Chongqing's 1st since 6 games back (2 losses and 4 draws) and helps it jump up to the heady heights of 9th place.

In the big boys and fat pay cheques league, Guangzhou Evergrande draw away to Dalian Aerbin, allowing Jiangsu to come within one point on the table with their 2-0 win at home to 3rd place Guizhou. 

Season flops Shanghai Shenhua get a much needed 3-0 win over Lioning with Drogba scoring in the 90th minute.  Beijing Guoan and Guangzhou Fuli have their games on tonight to push for challenging 3rd spot, but there is talk that the Beijing game (against Henan) may be postponed due to the escalating China-Jappo dispute over the Diaoyu Islands (why it would affect a football game I have no idea).

After round 27 in China One, Shanghai Far East and Wuhan have a firm grip on promotion to CSL.  Shanghai top the table and will be promoted.  Wuhan need 1 pt in the last three games.

At the other end it is still a dogfight, but prime candidates are Beijing baxi and Hohhot Dongjin who could only get a point at home to Chongqing last night.

In the billionaire's playthings league there are still 4 or 5 games to go and Guangzhou Hengda, playing in the ACL, CFA and CSL with many games crammed into not many days is starting to suffer as it crashes to a defeat against Qingdao, allowing Jiangsu to snatch pole position if they beat Dalian tonight. 

Scrapping for 3rd spot and ACL qualification are Guangzhou Fuli, Beijing and Guizhou.  Possibly the nod will go to Beijing who despite their 0-4 loss to Changchun, remain 4th behind GZ Fuli but have a game in hand.

Relegation is still up for grabs.

 Great updates!

Thanks Zachsta.

It's been interesting following Chinese football over the last few seasons.  So many "experts" knocking it due to the corruption in the past and euro-snobbery.

Still a long way to go but on balance some very good progress and signs for the near future.

Wolfman used to post Thai football which was always good, would be good to get others posting on other leagues in Asia.

In China One with two more games to go, Wuhan Zhuo'er clinch the 2nd promotion spot to the CSL (1st spot was taken by Shanghai East Asia) thanks to 3rd place Chongqing Lifan losing its game and so unable to catch Wuhan.

Wuhan then proceeded to lose to Chongqing FC (Killen's team) 3-2.

At the bottom Hohhot Dongjin look certain to be relegated and the tussle to avoid the other relegation will be between Shenyang and the two Beijing teams (Baxi and Institute of Technology), although mathematically Guangdong and Yanbian are also in the mix.

the CSL Guangzhou Hengda bounce back from their shock exit from the ACL earlier in the week with a 3-2 win over Shandong.  Now that they are only juggling two competitions (CSL and CFA Cup) they should be able to take both. Jiangsu have secured 2nd place and still could challenge for the title but will rely on Hengda losing in the next three games.

Still scrapping out for 3rd place and ACL qualification are Guangzhou Fuli, Beijing Guoan and Guizhou Renhe.  

Going down almost certainly will be Henan Jianye and trying to avoid joining them will be Shanghai Shenxin who are five points adrift of Dalian Shide and Shandong Luneng with three games to go.

Of minor interest I note that Joel Griffiths has got on the scoring sheet for Shanghai Shenhua along with Drogba in their 4-2 loss away to Guizhou Renhe.  Griffiths has not been used since Drogba's arrival so perhaps there has been am injury to Anelka or maybe a reorganisation of the foreign player roster.  Can't be bothered looking it up as I have no real interest in Shanghai.

CSL and China One resume after the international break.

China One is a mere formality as the teams going up and going down have now been sorted.

CSL still an open contest - and the game of the season between Guangzhou Hengda (1st) and Jiangsu Shuntian (2nd)1-1 ends in a draw, with 3 pts still separating them.

The fight for 3rd spot and ACL gets heated, with Guoan making a late surge and a valuable away win at Qingdao to grab outright 3rd (44 pts) with both Guizhou and Guangzhou Fuli stumbling (draw and loss at home respectively) to be adrift on 41 pts with two more games to go.  Changchun also throw their gauntlets into the fray with a good 1-3 away win over Shanghai Shenhua (some off-field discontent festering on) and also move up to 41 pts.

http://www.soccerway.com/national/china-pr/csl/2012/regular-season/

CSL round 29 completed tonight.  One more to come.

Beijing Guoan tightens its hold on 3rd spot (45 pts) with a draw against 2nd place Jiangsu Shuntian.  The only team that can catch them now is Guizhou Renhe on 42 pts (and better goal difference).  This will be an exciting tussle next week as Beijing host winners Guangzhou Hengda while Guizhou travel to lowly Dalian Shide.

At the bottom 15th place Shanghai Shenxin (30 pts) grab a lifeline with a 1-1 draw against Shandong Luneng (33 pts).  Shanghai next play Liaoning (also 33 pts) so a win could see them get out of jail and relegate Liaoning ... literally.

China One final games being played tomorrow. Killen's team Chongqing FC (38 pts, 9th place) take on Chengdu Blades (41 pts, 7th place).  All the remaining games are pretty much meaningless.

Soccerway is rather slow and unreliable for China One but here is Sohu:

http://sports.sohu.com/20120315/n337834366.shtml

Guangzhou Hengda beat Guizhou Renhe 5-3 on aggregate to take the CFA Cup to go with their CSL title.

This means that the four qualifying teams for ACL 2013 are:

Guangzhou Hengda

Jiangsu Shuntian

Beijing Guoan

Guizhou Renhe

 I've been watching the ASEAN Football Federation (AFF) Suzuki Cup the last few weeks. Thailand doing well after their humilating 1st round exit in 2010. The 1st leg of their semi-final on Sunday in Malaysia was a cracker. 2nd leg tomorrow (Thurs 13th) night. I'd recommend watching if you can find a stream. Highlights from the 1st leg:  http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WJvdeoTVRsU   Teerasil Daengda's equaliser on of the best headers I've ever seen. And that's my man Kawin Tammasatchanan making that point blank save at the end. 

top 10 soccernet Asian players 

Bambang trialed for the Nix a couple of years ago (but we couldn't afford him).

CSL about to kick off this weekend with China One next weekend (thanks kiwi mum).

All the real oil on Chinese football can be found at wildeast football which is run by Shanghai Ultra (Cameron Wilson) an ex-pat Scots (Dunfermline Athletic) who is a Shanghai Shenhua fan and also bcheng (aka A Modern Leifeng) en ex-pat Yank who is a rabid Beijing Guo'an fan.  

The site is well worth a look - these guys have a real passion for the game and China and their Chinese is very, very good.  They quite often get the English scoops on what's happening in Chinese football.

CSL Round 2 kicks off later tonight.

Results round up and vids at WEF here 

Main upset was Guangzhou Fuli going down 2-4 at home to Liaoning Whowin (they certainly did), otherwise business as usual for the big boys.

China One season starts tonight - now there are two teams with NZ players.  Chongqing FC (Chris Killen) and Shijiazhuang Junhao (Steven Old).  Will concentrate most attention here as this league is like ASB Premiership here in terms of coverage.

China One results, round 1:

Chongqing FC 0-1 Harbin Yiteng

Shijiazhuang Junhao 1-2 Beijing Institute of Technology

Chongqing Lifan 2-0 Shenyang Shenbei

Guangdong Sunray Cave 2-1 Chengdu Blades

Hunan Xiangtao 1-1 Tianjin Songjiang

(three more games tomorrow)

Home losses to Killen's and Old's teams 

Round 3 of China One sees Steven Old's Shijiazhuang draw away at Chengdu Blades 0-0, while Chris Killen's Chongqing FC lose away to Beijing Baxi 2-1 - they have now lost 3 in a row,

Meanwhile in the CSL the main match sees Beijing Guoan and Guangzhou Hengda draw 1-1 in Beijing.

Interesting - new ASEAN superleague starting up http://sports.yahoo.com/news/blank-headline-received-044645271--sow.html 

Back to China One...round 11

Tonight Steven Old's Shijiazhuang Junhao (9th) travel to Tianjin Songjiang (10th)  while Killen's struggling Chongqing (13th) travel to table topping Henan Jianye, which is a hard ask. Henan have home advantage with a very vociferous crowd as related in WEF a few seasons back.

Junhao draw 0-0 at Tianjin, while Chongqing FC go down 4-1 at Henan.  Killen scores in 70th minute with a header.

Upcoming games in round 12 for China One on soccerway

Henan Jianye at the top looking to add to the points in their away game to Chongqing Lifan (city rivals to CQ FC).  Henan were relegated last year and are on track to go straight back up.

Old's mid-table Shijiazhuang Junhao should make easy work of bottom placed Guizhou Zuicheng and Killen's Chongqing FCtravel to Chengdu (also relegated last season) who are fellow strugglers hovering around the drop zone. 

Henan draw against Chongqing Lifan allowing Shenzhen Ruby to make up ground with its 5-2 win against Beijing Polytech.

Chongqing FC lose away to Chengdu Blades (2-0) so are now back in the relegation zone after Hubei Huakaier haul themselves out of it with a 1-0 win at home to Yanbian (Hubei now on 7 pts with Chongqing but greater goal difference).

Shijiazhuang Junhao draw with Guizhou 1-1 - they are comfortably mid-table.  Old provides an assist for the opening goal but late drama in the game leaves the home fans in a pwopa nawty mood and they pelt the ref's bus as it leaves the stadium.

On now in China One, Guangdong Sunray Cave have just equalised against Shenyang Shenbei (1-1) 28 mins into the game.

2nd half underway.  Must say that Guangdong and Shenyang look much better than Chengdu and Chongqing last night.

Guangdong in particular play a very nice passing game but can also turn on the gas.  Unfortunately their final play is Phoenix-esque.  A tendancey to run down the wings to the goal line and then put in a cross to a crowded penalty area.

Still they do look good and have been camped out in Shenyang's half since the start of the 2nd half.

Edit:  Just lost the feed, and it was looking interesting.