Revenge!
Fighting to stay in the Europa Conference League.
Please note that you can find the latest standings and selected statistics on this splash page.
Revenge!
We came into this match knowing that we needed a win desperately.
And, oh boy, did we ever deliver!
Jeong Sang-Bin overcame his jitters in our last match by delivering a spectacular hat trick. We won this one 3-0, and looked really good in the process.
In fact, we only allowed Voždovac to have a single shot, which wasn’t even on target.
We dominated this game inside and out, and should feel very proud of our accomplishment.
More New Faces
There are more new faces to introduce, of course.
Ronan Pluijmen is a 20-year-old Thai national left back who looks extremely good.
We picked him up on a free transfer from Muangthong United. He didn’t have much of a season last year, but he played well in this start against Voždovac.
The coaches think Pluijmen is going to be a star, perhaps even better than Pak Myong-Song.
Next up is Matias Lazo, a 20-year-old Peruvian centerback who gives us more quality in the back.
We picked up Lazo for 5.5 million RMB from Melgar, which was another excellent value. He also struggled for form last season, but looks good so far.
Lazo looks like another long-term star player for us. I’m excited to see how he develops.
Finally, we completed our conquest of Thailand’s national team by signing Patrik Gustavsson, a 22-year-old Thai international who was born in Sweden.
Gustavsson came in for 6 million RMB from Chiangmai, and originally started things off with Oxelösunds IK. Finding him was the result of me ordering our scouts to look at every single young player on national teams throughout East Asia.
Gustavsson is technically a striker, but will likely play on the attacking right wing for us from time to time. He’ll probably have some trouble earning starts, though, since Delfi is such a massive attacking force on that side.
There are a few more players to introduce, but we’ll leave all of that for another post.
Season Preview
While we’re messing around with Conference League qualification, there’s also the small matter of the Chinese First Division that we have to worry about.
The board expects that we are going to gain automatic promotion to the Chinese Super League this year. In fact, everybody in the country expects that we are going to win the First Division.
The media has given us 1-91 odds to win promotion, and 4-11 odds to win the First Division outright.
Suphanat Mueanta has been given 10-11 odds to be the top goalscorer in the First Division, which kind of surprises me. Jeong Song-Bin, meanwhile, didn’t finish in the odds at all. I would be surprised if Mueanta wound up being the top goalscorer on our team, let alone in the league.
And, as you can expect, we’ve got three players in the running for First Division top player. Mueanta is joined by Romeo Lavia and Eiran Cashin in that conversation, and the three of them are neck and neck.
In other news, the board has announced that the undersoil heating installation project is now complete. We should be ready for the worst of the winter.
Wolfsberger AC
Our next Conference League qualifying round is against Wolfsberger Athletiksport Club from Austria.
We are slight favorites to win the first match, which we will play at home. I’m always worried when we have the first leg at home, of course. I hope that we have a dominating victory that puts us in a good position to defend when we head back out to Wolfsberg.
Please note that you can find the latest standings and selected statistics on this splash page.