The Best Team in China?
The Chinese Super Cup
Please note that you can find the latest standings and selected statistics on this splash page.
The Best Team in China?
So, can we officially call ourselves the best team in China now?
This wasn’t necessarily the best performance we ever had. In fact, neither of our strikers played well. I’m worried about Mueanta, who just doesn’t seem to have the ability we’ll need at the highest level in the country. At least he’s still young.
Still, we were able to pull off the 2-1 victory.
We owe it all to Zhu Bin, who scored two quick goals in the first ten minutes to get things rolling.
Frankly, I can’t believe it. Zhu Bin is 16 years old, and is a product of our youth system. He was a mostly anonymous player in our under-19s side until January, when I decided to give him a chance in the first team. And now he’s looking like one of the best players in the entire country.
We played well at the beginning of this match, but started to taper off as time went on. Shandong got one back in the 57th minute, and our attempts to score were pretty easily thwarted by their defense.
At least we were good enough to win. That’s all that really matters, after all. Good enough.
Transfer Window
We’re into September already, and the transfer window has shut.
There was a flurry of spending on our part near the end, even though we didn’t have much money. I was fortunate to run across a number of 15 and 16 year old Chinese players who basically cost us nothing at all to sign. I think I added on about 20 signings on the final day alone.
We signed over 200 players in this transfer window, the majority of which went straight to our under-19s squad. We also loaned out over 100. There weren’t as many loans for profit as I’d like, but I’ve got a feeling that we’ll see more of those in the future.
The plan is to see which of those young players starts showing talent like Zhu Bin and eventually move them up to the front. In a few years, we should have a largely homegrown club that is more than capable of competing in the Champions League.
Trust the plan. It’s working.
Rivalry Renewed
Our home opener is next. And we’re facing none other than Jiangsu FC, our rivals from last season.
We’re going to have to put a decimated squad out there. Pak Myong-Song and Suphanat Mueanta are both away on international duty. Cheng Binbin has been injured for the past two months or so, and is still out. Come to think of it, I think Cheng Binbin has been injured for almost his entire time at the club. We might have to fix that in the near future.
Anyway, I hope we put on a good performance. Word has it that we’re expecting over 21,000 people to show up, which would be a record for the Chinese First Division. Maybe we’ll single-handedly revitalize interest in football in this country.
Please note that you can find the latest standings and selected statistics on this splash page.