Taishan Evening News Niu Zhiming
At 19:00 on April 15, the group stage of the new season AFC Champions League officially began to compete, and Shandong Taishan team played the first match against South Korea's K United runner-up Daegu FC. Affected by various factors, Taishan team arranged U21 elite echelon to play in the AFC Champions League group stage, facing the overall strength of the Korean team, Taishan's young people still have to dare to fight for opponents, and strive to gain something in the game.
Taishan won the Chinese Super League and FA Cup doubles last season and returned to the AFC Champions League. However, due to the conflict between the AFC Champions League and the Chinese Super League schedule, the Football Association did not provide a solution, but let the team choose for itself. Considering the influence of various factors, Taishan decided to arrange the U21 elite echelon to play in the AFC Champions League group stage, Guangzhou team also arranged young players to play, Shanghai Harbor withdrew from the AFC Champions League, Yatai has long withdrawn from the AFC Champions League play-offs, and only Taishan and Guangzhou teams are left in the Chinese Super League to participate in the AFC Champions League.
In order to play the AFC Champions League group stage, the Taishan team has begun to form the U21 elite echelon at the beginning of the season, which covers Taishan's players from 2000 to 2004, as well as some players who returned from loans to participate in training. Originally, Liu Chaoyang and Ji Shengpan in 1999 and Fang Hao in 2000 also trained with the team, but they did not enter the final AFC Champions League entry list. Tian Yuda, Xie Wenneng, Song Bowei, Mai Wulang and others of the national brand were also absent for various reasons, which had an impact on the strength of the team.
In the face of various difficulties, Taishan U21 elite team coach Yu Yuanwei can only work hard to overcome, he led the team to Arrive in Buriram, Thailand on April 11, before the start of the game, the team has 3 days to adapt to the adjustment time, on the 15th at 19:00 will be against the first opponent of the group stage, the third place in the Korean K League Daegu FC. Daegu is two consecutive seasons in the AFC Champions League, last season they were divided into Group I, the same group as Beijing Guoan, the two games against Guoan scored 5-0 and 3-0, the overall advantage is obvious.
Image from AFC official
This season, Daegu's performance in the K League has not been ideal, with 2 wins, 2 draws and 5 losses after 9 league rounds, and ranking 10th with 8 points. Judging from the team's lineup configuration, they dismissed the badly injured foreign aid core Edgar in the middle of the season, signed the high school striker Zeka, the recent K League, Zeka and Ramas are the main choices of the team, and the main shooter Cecigna has been absent due to injury consecutively, which has a great impact on the team's offensive strength. Sesinha scored five goals in the AFC Champions League last season, while Daegu scored 22 goals in the group stage and are good in attack. In addition, Daegu also has a Japanese foreign aid Keita Suzuki, and the lineup configuration of 4 foreign aides is still relatively neat.
Objectively speaking, even if Daegu's strength has declined compared to last season, they still have a clear advantage against the young players of the Taishan team. In the 23-member AFC Champions League roster of Taishan, only a few players such as Lu Yongtao, Lu Hongda, Lin Guoyu and Yi Xianlong have professional league experience, and the AFC Champions League group stage will be the first professional event for many players, which is indeed a big test for them.
Of course, for the young people of the Taishan team, face up to the gap, but also dare to fight the opponent. In the group stage, Taishan team will also play against Japan's Urawa Red Diamonds and Singapore's Lion City Mariners, 6 group games in 16 days to play, look forward to The Taishan team members can have more highlights in the game.