Match 1 Preview - Chongqing Lifan

The wait is over, all the talk no longer matters, and many other cliches, the season begins tonight at Gongti.  Beijing comes into this game having performed impressively in two Asian Champions League matches and with expectations of the fans that this will finally be their year.  Chongqing is a squad with very different expectations, after having gone down in 2007, they were able to make the move back up finishing 2nd in the lower division, besting Ba Yi by only 1 point in a tight promotion battle.  They are without any big names and will have to work hard and get a little lucky if they want to stay in the top flight this year.

As a Guoan supporter its hard not to be optimistic about this year's season and especially the team's return to Gongti.  The team is a solid mix of veterans like Xu Yunlong and Tao Wei while also featuring maturing youngsters like Yan Xiangchuang and Huang Bowen, who hopefully will finally step up and earn their star status.  The addition of the Australian Griffiths brothers has already paid dividends.

Tonight Gongti is sure to be alive, the Champions League match saw over 30,000 fans in attendance, hopefully tonight will see another strong attendance.  I've been debating back and forth all week but have decided to skip my basketball game so that I can be at Gongti, a difficult decision indeed.  I watched the league's "opening ceremony" last night from Zhengzhou and will probably catch the 3pm match today, I'm already getting excited and really look forward to this evening.  The weather in Beijing has been great lately and there's nothing like nice spring weather and expectations for a new season to make me happy.