The Kids Are Alright
We've got a bunch of good looking youngsters on this squad.
Please note that you can find the latest standings and selected statistics on this splash page.
The Kids Are Alright
Yeah, we beat Guangxi. They didn’t put up much of a fight.
Just as I was hoping, we had a few goals from unexpected players.
Patrik Gustavsson, the Thai international of Swedish heritage, scored a goal in the 24th minute, and added on two assists. There’s a good argument for him to be our starting right attacking winger. The only reason I can think of starting anybody else at the moment is if we want to get Mueanta or Delfi in with two big strikers.
Miguel Sandberg, our Taiwanese international who is also of Swedish heritage, contributed a goal of his own in the 5th minute.
And Yan Dawei, a very young Chinese right back who is probably the long-term replacement for Pak Myong-Song, chimed in with a goal of his own in the 57th minute.
Jeong Sang-Bin scored one in the 53rd minute as well. He’s back from spending about 5 weeks on the injured list.
We’re doing well, and we didn’t even have to start any of our really big names in this one.
New Faces
There are two more new Chinese kids to introduce you to, both of whom made their first team debuts for us against Guangxi. Once they are done, you’ve effectively met the entire first team squad, except for our 15-year-old emergency backup goaltender.
Shi Xu is a 16 year old defensive midfielder who hails from Shanghai.
We picked Shi Xu up over the summer from Shanghai Shenxin, who are firmly planted in the Second Division South. He cost us a cool 1.35 million RMB, which is an indication of his raw talent.
Shi Xu has trained extremely well lately, has an excellent personality, and is quite versatile. He’s not necessarily a great offensive player at this point, but he is quite brave, which means he’ll show up when other players will shy away.
Our other new face is Chen Jun, a 17-year-old centerback from Beijing.
We picked Chen Jun up for free from Beijing University over the summer. Free is a pretty good price no matter how he does.
He can jump well and has good talent in the air, even though he’s not exactly the tallest at 185 centimeters. He does need to speed up a bit to play effectively at this level, though I’d argue that having a slow centerback isn’t really the end of the world.
Suzhou Dongwu
It’s time for more rotation. We’re heading to Suzhou, the Venice of the East, and one of my favorite cities in all of China.
We’re going to win this match pretty much no matter what. I know I’m not supposed to look too far ahead, but my eyes are firmly fixed on our Chinese FA Cup match against Tianjin, which will come 4 days after this one. We need to keep our big stars fresh for that.
Please note that you can find the latest standings and selected statistics on this splash page.