Asian Football

Penultimate round of the CSL just completed.  Shenzhen are relegated with a 2-3 loss to Shandong.  Killen scores in the 81st minute.

Just read this on 442. While looking for news on Killen (on Chinese websites) I also read that Griffiths is happy at Guoan and the coach, Pacheco is happy with Griffiths so he is getting a lot of starts (compared with the previous season).

Since Pacheco has signed for another season it makes sense for Joel to stay too.

Junior822011-11-01 23:49:18

Next lot of pool games for the WC (round 4). China away to Iraq. A point would be good. A loss makes it rather improbable to qualify.

Sept 30- Oct 6 "Lion King Roars Again in Asia" Mostly a round up of the 2nd legs of quarterfinals in both AFC Club competitions, including Jeonbuk Motors 6-1 win over Cerezo Osaka, which gave them a 9-5 aggregate victory. Former Middlesborough player Lee Dong-Guk (aka The Lion King) scored 6 goals in the tie: 2 in the 3-4 loss in Japan, plus 4 of the 6 in the home win. Those 6 goals put him top of the ACL scorers list in the ACL.

Oct 7-13 "The case of Bin Hammam" Mostly looks at Mohammed Bin Hammam's lifetime ban and upcoming appeal. wolfman2011-11-19 04:17:31

Oct 21-27 "Al Kuwait & Nasaf to meet in AFC Cup Final"

wolfman2011-11-19 04:16:43

Oct 28 - Nov 3 "Sawa & Miyami - Women's Player of the Year?" wolfman2011-11-19 04:17:50

Nov 4 - 11 "Nasaf Make History" Uzbek club Nasaf have become the first club from that country to win an Asian club title, defeating Kuwait SC 2-1 in the final of the AFC Cup on October 29th. Nasaf, hosting the final, went ahead with a goal from Ilkom Chomurodov in the 62nd minute. Andrey Bereblokin made it 2-0 three minutes later. Kuwait set up a tense finish by scoring a goal of their own after 68 minutes through Boris Kabi.

I've gotten way behind with those columns, and life is now too busy to bother catching up.

Buriram PEA won the Thai Premier League title with 4 matches to spare. Due to a process that is dodgy as hell, the team that will be competing in the ACL will be called Buriram Utd. Although that team will be chock-full of PEA players, IMHO the new side is simply a rebranding of the Division 1 (2nd-tier) champions Buriram FC, who also wrapped up their title in the weekend. For a full version of my rant on the cheating c**ts of Buriram, see here:

 

http://thaifootball.freeforums.org/conflict-of-interests-t253.html 

 

To clarify some of that, Newin Chidchob is a former politician, banned for 5 years after the coup of 2006. Like many of the banned politicians (there were 111 of them) he's still active behind the scenes of his party Bhumjaithai, including choosing candidates to replace his banned mates etc. He took over Provincial Electricity Authority FC (PEA) after the 2009 season, and moved them from Ayuthaya to his political stronghold in Buriram. The local Division 2 club, Buriram FC, was taken over by his wife Karuna.

He used his money to build 2 new stadia, and bought in new players to boost PEA. He also got the coach of 2009 champions Muang Thong Utd. As he strengthened PEA (he has links with the Thai consortium who own Leicester City), he transferred 7 PEA players to FC in each of the last two seasons. Last season, he paid a number of fans to attend matches of both teams (there's really only one set of fans), and had the TPL constantly rearranging fixtures so he could sit on the bench of both teams on Saturdays and Sundays. This year, it was already arranged. He's openly used the coach of PEA on the sidelines of FC as they won last year's Division 2, and this season's Div 1 title. Now FC are in the big league, he's split with PEA, who are relocating again, and 'merged' the Buriram teams into United.

J82, could you give me the story on Guangzhou Evergrande, so I can pass it on over here? Folks are interested in the teams that are facing Thai clubs in the ACL.

Short summary:

OK, so here is my take on Guangzhou. Although I kept tabs on the CSL this last season I only saw Guangzhou once towards the end of their match (time difference and limited live streams), so this is my perspective and info from Wiki, soccerway and the like.

I�m also not too sure on what are the comings and goings of the squad as it is the off-season and there is a lot of wheeling & dealing.

Coach: LEE Jang-soo from Korea � has good credentials as a coach in both Korea and China. Worryingly as the coach that took the team to the top of the 2nd div in one season and then won the CSL the next it is rumoured that he will be dropped as coach for some European coach who must surely be better �cos he is white�.

Foreign players (4+1 Asian):

Paulao (Brazil) � defender: 28 appearances over the season so a regular starter

Conca (Argentina) � midfielder: Joined in July amid much hype, scored on debut and notched up 9 goals in 15 appearances. Don�t think he stood out as anything special but did bolster an already good midfield.

CHO Won-hee (Korea) � midfielder: Started in all 30 games, subbed in only one. No goals so I�m guessing he is more of a DM.

Cleo (Brazil) � forward: Only played 10 games as had injuries that kept him out of the squad for much of the season. Good when he played but rumoured to be dropped for next season.

Muriqui (Brazil) � forward: Golden boot for 2011. 26 appearances, 16 goals. He missed 4 matches due to a ban placed on him for fighting (just like Killen) � a rather harsh/redonkulous decision.

Chinese players in the national team:

ZHANG Linpeng � CB: Not a regular starting XI but does so when either Paulao or FENG Xiaoting are injured. Still good enough to be selected for China under the coach GA0 Hongbo�s youth policy, but dropped by the new coach Camacho in favour of the useless lump LI Weifeng.

FENG Xiaoting � CB: Regular starter (27 appearances). Only a couple of appearances for the national team under Camacho � a rather strange decision for both GZ players considering the preferred pairing of LI Weifeng and DU Wei with a combined age of 523 years.

ZHENG Zhi � DM: Paired with CHO Won-hee in the starting XI �he was also captain for China in 2008. Captain for the club also.

WU Pingfeng �RW: Another regular starter (23 out of 28 appearances). I should keep an eye on him as he is a native of my family�s district (probably a distant relation!).

YANG Hao � CAM/utility mid: Don�t know much about this guy. 17 starts from 22 appearances.

GA0 Lin � LW: Pretty handy goal scorer 10 from 28 appearances (27 starts), 8th equal top goal scorer for 2011 in the CSL. Quite a few starts in the national team too.

YE Weichao � LW: Mostly used on the bench only 4 appearances and only one game for China � another one of GA0�s youth selections.

Style of Play:

Guangzhou has a very miserly defence � the second least conceded in 2011 and keeping a clean sheet 14 times. The only time they have conceded more than two goals was when they lost 5-2 to Jiangsu immediately after they had won the CSL (with 4 games to spare). In the midfield the defensive pairing of CHO and ZHENG is very effective and Conca operates in the middle as the creative midfielder supplying G** and Muriqui upfront.

The one time I saw them they played in a similar way to Roar - lots of controlled passing but at a faster pace. They also seemed to press the opponents more and make more tackles than intercepts. Some people say that they have a habit of scoring equalisers or winners very late in the game which up to then are quite even. If this is so they have done that consistently so it won't be that luck is falling their way. Probably their style of play wears down the defence so that scoring opportunities are coughed up late in the game.

I think they will give their opponents a very good contest although they are up against the Korean and Japanese champions (and no disrespect to the Thai champions). This will be a very good litmus test to see how far the CSL has developed.

Cheers J82, I've passed that on to an English-language Thai fooball forum. 

If anyone is interested (or knowsanyone) the Thai Premier League changed its import quota for 2012.

After announcing twice that the current 7/5 rule would remain in place (7 registered in squad, but only 5 on the pitch at once time), they've suddenly changed it to 5/3+1, after receiving a recommendation from the AFC. The majority of the clubs voted for this back in December, before the first announcement that nothing would change.

Actually the new rule is better described as 7/5/3+1, as many clubs have renewed contracts or signed players based on the original rule (transfer window opened Dec 26). To accomodate this,  the FAT now says teams can register 7 foreigners, but only name 5 in their matchday squad. Of those 5, only 3 may be one the pitch at the same time (or 4 if one''s Asian).

Former Phoenix player Adrian Caceres is reported to have joined Thai Premier League team Chiang Rai United for the 2012 season. wolfman2012-02-22 20:31:16

CSL kicks off today.

Currently newly promoted Guangzhou Fuli (the team I have adopted for family reasons) has less than 10 mins to go and are leading Beijing Guoan 2-0.

Earlier Liaoning Whowin beat Henan Jianye 3-1 and Dalian Shide lost 1-2 at home to Changchun Yatai.

Junior822012-03-10 22:32:57

Final score Guangzhou Fuli 2, Beijing Guoan 1.

Great start for the true Guangzhou team.

Huge Guangzhou derby this weekend: Newly promoted Fuli take on glamour club Hengda (Evergrande) at Fuli's small but styley, stonking stadium.

This weekend is a a biggie for derby/rival games:

Junior822012-03-15 21:56:55

Fuli up 1-0 over Hengda at half time. Penalty in 13th min. Junior822012-03-16 23:59:57

Fuli under the kosh but still with a clean sheet.

2-0!  Scored by sub Zhang Yuan (on for the injured Jumar).  Not long to go. Junior822012-03-17 01:02:49

Bed time now, but it's half time in Beijing and Guoan lead Shenhua 1-0.

I actually ended up watching the rest of the game. A real cracker with the final score 3-2 to Guoan.

Joel Griffiths scoring a penalty and Anelka getting an equaliser for Shenhua only for the sub Mao Jianqing to score the game winner.

Great couple of games to open round 2.

Killen's Chongqing has supposedly played but can't find any results yet. Edit: They lost 0-2 to B.I.T.

Junior822012-03-17 23:15:51

Chongqing pick up a 2-1 win away to Guangdong. Junior822012-03-24 23:58:37

Back in the CSL Leaders GZ Fuli lost in the last few minutes to SH Shenhua (0-1), although they still remain top of the table pending other matches tonight.

What's the quality of the Chinese league looking like these days? I know they had issues aplenty over the last few years with farcical matchfixing and so on but are they finally developing into an entertaining and competitive league now they've started throwing money around? How does it compare to say, the A league?

There was an article on 442 last year, one of the A-league plyers had gone over and then returned.  His verdict was that the good teams were as good and probably better than A-League std.  The bad teams were pretty sh!t however so overalll the CSL was on a par.

Yeah I didn't think Anelka seemed like the sort of player to join a dodgy league 

Derby weekend in Chongqing as Killen's FC take on Lifan.  A preview with some thoughts by Killen here: http://roll.sohu.com/20120330/n339327332.shtml

Killen scores in the 83rd minute to help give Chongqing FC bragging rights over rivals CQ Lifan witha 4-1 win. That moves CQ FC to 4th on the table after 3 games. Shenzhen slip down to 11th place (out of 16).

CSL round yet to be completed, but Guangzhou Hengda grabbed 3 pts with an away 0-1 win at Shanghai Shenhua (the one with Anelka and Griffiths) to move clear in 1st place.

GZ Fuli play tonight so could join their cross town rivals at the top with a win over Hangzhou.

...which they do. 1-0 over Hangzhou and top of the table on GD.

... which they didn't. Henan not so hapless now with a win over Guizhou.

An interesting view from Li Fei ahead of the Shenzhen-Chongqing clash.

He and team mate Killen left Shenzhen and moved to Chongqing. Li Fei still keeps in touch with the Shenzhen players - still a lot of sadness over his move.

Shenzhen fans are preparing a special welcome banner for Li and Killen. Killen has a little joke with the reporter - if he or Li Fei score a goal the reporter has to invite Killen to dinner (hopefully not hotpot!)

http://sports.xinmin.cn/2012/04/05/14296551.html

??FC????
Junior822012-04-06 08:37:03

Unfortunately Chongqing go down 4-2 to Shenzhen due to a late flurry of goals.

Fuli still top of the table thanks to a 2-1 win away at tianjin Teda. A rather lacklustre game with Fuli in control at 2-0 until the 76th min when the Tianijin Dutchman Ars (I kid you not) pegged one back and then Tianjin came alive looking for the equaliser.

Hengda play later tonight to try and remain level on points with their neighbours.

going my first j-league game tonight, should be great fun

Post a match report/observations?

CSL, round 6 underway. Guangzhou Hengda jump into pole position with a win over Hangzhou (3-1), Beijing Guoan also move up to 3rd with a win over Shandong Luneng (2-1). More games to come over the next three days with Guangzhou Fuli to play tomorrow to try and win back 1st place.

In China League One Killen scores from a penalty (47th min) and Chongqing FC beat Shenyang 1-0. Other games still underway, but a good result for Chongqing after the late capitulation to Shenzhen last week.

what a game it was, crowed was great, gamba went down 2-0 after 30 minutes but we pulled one back just before halftime, before scoring two more in the second half to win 3-2    was a great game it was.

but wow the japanese teams all play through the middle, very few crosses