Cup Match In The Snow
We Somehow Beat Zhejiang
Victory in the Snow
We did it. I don’t know how we did it, but we did it.
We had a decimated squad, hampered by injuries and sickness. We’ve had to deal with colds and the flu. We wound up having to start teenagers at centerback.
And yet we were still able to beat Zhejiang FC.
It was a snowy, wintery evening. Our players were slipping and sliding all over the place. And yet we were still able to force mistakes from Zhejiang, helping us on our way to a close and hard fought 2-0 win.
Jacob Dicko Eng scored both goals for us, and came within a whisker of a hat trick at the end of the match. We were on our heels for most of the first half, but wound up with a wonder goal from Eng not long before halftime.
Eng’s second goal came on the back of an amazing pass by Lee Jin-Yong, sending the ladies in the crowd into a frenzy. That one came in the 81st minute, and was enough to make the victory complete.
It wasn’t all roses, of course. Wang Tong was sent off after an absolutely ridiculous tackle in the 67th minute, one that led to a straight red card. He didn’t need to make the tackle, and I guess he just got caught up in the moment.
Mueanta made his debut, but wasn’t able to do much, unfortunately. I took him off at halftime to try to conserve his energy and avoid another injury. The conditions were really treacherous.
We won, though, and that’s what counts.
Playing The Youth
Our squad is in pretty bad shape. It’s not the injuries, either. It’s the weather.
We’ve got 4 players out with either the flu or colds. I’ve been sending players home left and right. We do have enough to field a squad, but we’re going to have to use some interesting players.
We’ll start Zhu Bin in our next match. He’s a 16-year-old left winger who came up through the youth academy.
Zhu Bin has made enough progress to get a taste of first team football, but I’m not entirely convinced that he’s really good enough to play for this squad. He will be in the future, but I don’t know if he’s good enough right now. I suppose we’ll see.
The other experiment will be Shi Jiayang, a 16-year-old centerback who is clearly not good enough at the moment.
We bought Shi Jiayang from Qingdao Qingchundao in the 2nd tier for 450,000 RMB. He came in on January 1st, spent about a week or two in the under-21 squad, and now has to make it work on the first team. It’s pretty crazy.
The coaches tell me that he probably doesn’t have the required ability or potential for this squad. However, he’s young, he’s tall, he knows how to play the position, and he’s on our team. We’ll play him whether it works or not.
We’ll see if starting him haunts us.
Beijing University
We’re playing on the road at Beijing University again.
We should be able to win this match, though I’m not sure if our young players are going to be ready for it or not. We’ll see.