Champions Leauge Matchday 1 : Let's Get it Started

It's been a long time without a match and during that time there were a lot of events I failed to report on in the sports world. We've had the whole corruption scandal, Guoan's major signings, Marbury coming to China, the Winter Olympics, the new kits (coming soon), and the biggest, China's national team beating Korea, but you haven't read about any of those things on here. Anyways, now you have what you come to hear for, game information, and we have an interesting one tonight.

It seems like almost no time has passed since Halloween 2009, when on the day of gouls and goblins, Guoan broke a long standing curse to win their first ever domestic league title. That victory guarantees them a spot in the Asian Champions League, though hopefully this year's campaign will go better than last year's weak showing.

Guoan has certainly prepared well for this one, lots of preseason matches against domestic teams as well as a trip to Japan for a few against Japanese and Korean sides (including a brawl incident). They've also made a number of new signings which should do a lot to shape this year's side, bringing in former Scottish international Maurice Ross, CSL scoring stud Otto, and "China's Beckham" Xu Liang.

Just like last year, Guoan is opening its Asian campaign at home against an Australian team, though this time around its the Melbourne Victory. Last year, it was the new signings of the Griffiths brothers that combined against their old team (and older brother) to secure a victory. It appears that Ryan won't be on the ACL roster this time around, though Joel is still around, will he shine when given the chance to impress the large Australian audience? Will one of this year's new signings step up to win over the fans early?

Melbourne's in a tough position, having finished 2nd in their domestic league they are currently in the midst of the playoffs, having won the first leg of their semifinal match last week. They now have to contend with the massive jet lag that comes with a flight to Beijing, as well as winter conditions in Beijing. Despite all this, the manager has declared they won't sit back and play defense, instead they will play an attacking squad and go for the win, though how they turn out on the field will show how true he is to his word.

So there you have it, we'll probably see part 1 of the Tao/Xu experiment in midfield and how it works. Considering Guoan has yet to play a league match, expect team work to be a little spotty, but with a month to go before the start of the season, there is no reason why they shouldn't be able to go all out and seeing how hot Yang Zhi was in the recent East Asian Championship, Guoan will always have him to hold things up. The only team news is that Lang Zheng will be out, serving a two match ban, making it all the more likely we'll see Ross for the first time in the green and white tonight.

With no Chinese team advancing out of the group stage last year, Guoan (and the others) should be pumped up for a better showing to help China save face, it starts tonight, let's go Guoan!

all posts cross posted at Beijing Football.

Champions League Matchday 4 Preview : Ulsan Hyundai

We are blessed with a Wednesday clash this week as Guoan gets back to the Champions League and tries for revenge against the only team to beat them so far this season, Korean side Ulsan Hyundai.

Today's a beautiful day in this the Imperial City and tomorrow night is expected to be just as nice as our Boys in Green battle it out for 3 points.  This is an extremely tight group with a mere 2 points separating first and last.  Guoan has a slight advantage, playing two out of the three remaining matches at home.  If you draw on the road and win your home matches, its typically enough to put you through, we got the results on the road, now its time to win.

Ulsan's not a pushover, though, despite their weak Champions League performances going into the Guoan match and their poor domestic form.  Plus, there's the whole issue of a Chinese team playing a Korean one, be it at the club or national team level, Korea just knows how to beat China.

As far as I'm concerned, there's only 1 key to this game, controlling Kim Shinwook.  Lee Jangsoo, please, please take Paul out the doghouse and put him in the lineup, we need him.  Lang Zheng will do, too, but Paul's build leads me to believe he'll play Kim physically and make him think twice when going up for those headers.  I'm not so sure Lang is cut out for the job.  No matter if its Paul or Lang, in no case should Zhang Yonghai be among the starters, he already proved he couldn't deal with Kim's height and the only strategy Ulsan had in the last match was knock the ball up field and get Kim in the air.

After how Du Wenhui and Yan Xiangchuang played in the last match, can we expect to see them in the lineup?  It seemed Du suffered a minor injury in the last match, is he fit for this one?  What about Zhou Ting, who now will be out of our next league match after being red carded?  Lee's squad that faced Shandong was one of the better ones we've seen this year.   Part of it is obviously building up teamwork as they get a few more matches under their belts, but a major part of it is getting the right mix of 10 guys.

I'd like to see Tao Wei remain up top with 2 attacking forwards, Yan played hungry against Shandong and he deserves a start on the wing, the question is do you choose strength and give Ryan Griffiths another run out after spending so much time on the bench lately or do you go with Yang Hao's speed, or Du Wenhui's attacking prowess.  Then there's the small matter of what you do with Huang Bowen.  Kind of a nice problem to have so many strong midfielders, Lee just has to find the right mix.

Considering its at home and 3 points are needed, Guoan has to put out an attacking formation, though going with both Du and Yan on the wings would be a bit much, perhaps.  The key to this match will be neutralizing Kim, Ulsan relied on him heavily in the last match, if they don't get many free kicks near the box or corners and a taller defender can keep him from getting long balls, 3 points aren't out of reach.

The song us fans always sing is "Guoan is Always Number 1", let's get 3 points and put ourselves in the driver's seat in this competition.