I watched this game. Guangzhou were just monsters: the moments throughout the match. Conca scored a gorgeous free kick
Indeed. A shocking result. It was the biggest defeat a K-league side has ever suffered against any Asian opposition in this continental championship. What's so worrying is this may not be just a one-off occasion. As it was proven in the last year's ACL by Al Sadd, having 3~4 quality foreigners in a team can buy you success in Asia. Guangzhou are spending ridiculous amount of money, more than any other Asian club has ever done previously, especially when it comes to acquiring quality foreign players. And it proved to have paid off well for the team considering all 5 goals were scored by the foreign players in today's match against Jeonbuk. If Guangzhou wins ACL this year, other Chinese teams will follow suit by trying to acquire top quality players from Europe to "fast track" to success in Asia. Now, the real question is, what will K/J clubs react to this? K/J clubs have been taking a rather different approach in which they take priority in developing young domestic players and thereby generate a large pool of talents in the long-term. This will help build squad depths within the club, and within the league itself, but this will also deteriorate the level of football. It is quite a dilemma. Nevertheless, I believe China's rise will toughen up the competition in East Asia, and it can suddenly be a welcoming sign from the perspective of Korean/Japanese counterparts as it will provide them more opportunity to improve on a club level. (Whether they will take China's fast-track approach is a different story though, at least from my understanding) Anyways, congratulations to Guangzhou on your deserving win.
Their head-coach is Korean too, and that probably has something to do with the 5-1 result. He knows the Korean teams too well.
Yes and the coach spent most of his coaching career in China so basically he knows Chinese soccer better than Korean. BTW Guangzhou Evergrande announced a 14million CNY bonus,about 2.2million USD for the win at Jeonju
Group E Gamba Osaka 0-3 pohang steelers Bunyodkor 1-2 Adelaide United Group F Brisbane Roar 0-2 FC Tokyo Ulsan Hyundai 2-1 Beijing Guo'an Highlights: http://sports.cntv.cn/20120306/122368.shtml Group G Nagoya Grampus 2-2 Seongnam Ilhwa Tianjin Teda 0-0 Central Coast Mariners Group H Jeongbuk Hyundai 1-5 Guangzhou Evergrande Highlights: http://sports.cntv.cn/20120307/122581.shtml Buriram United 3-2 Kashiwa Reysol
Online video: First Half: http://sports.cntv.cn/20120307/121038.shtml Second Half: http://sports.cntv.cn/20120307/123088.shtml
Thank you so much! I assume there is no way I can download the video of those two pages so I can watch later?
saudis sucking as usual Perspolis 1-Hilal 0 also red card for hilal so far 3 wins out of 3 for Iranian teams
Tell me, where I can see the full squads announced at the AFC Champions League. At Uefa.com have complete lists of 30-35 players on each team, but the Asian Champions League, I can not find it.
Nice goal. I did not see the match but from reading the reactions and commentaries on PFDC Sepahan should have won it by like 7-0. But at least they won
Al-Hilal 1-1 Persepolis, al-Shalhoub with a golazo in the 52nd. Makes up for the sheer stupidity of Osama Hawsawy in the first period.
This link shows the results and tables, next to each result so far is a media kit with the squad lists. Click the link to view.
AFC didn't change the foreign quota. I remember seeing Qatari media reports saying that Nathan was 'registered as a citizen' from around two months ago. I don't know if this means he was naturalized, or if he was granted dual citizenship. Football sites didn't really update on this, since absolutely no one is ever sure of the nationalities of all the players playing in the QSL. I found the same problem with Lekhwiya vs Ahli, not even gonna touch that one...
Al-Hilal 1-1 Perspolis FC Good result for the reds. But a rather uninspiring performance. I dont expect PP to go go far in the competition, they arent what they osed to be. In fact they are now 8th(I think) in the Iranian league
It would have been, if they weren't already up 1-0, playing against 10-men team. So it's a disappointing result in the context of the match. Persepolis were provided with a massive opening to take 3 points with ease, thanks to the sheer stupidity of the Saudi defender who was red-carded, and they just didn't take advantage of it.
Hopefully, that's true. Because, given the current state of Asian football, 3+1 should be the maximum allowable quota for the foreigners in order to protect the development of local players. I also found the same problem with Lekhwiya. Amazingly they were allowed to play 7 foreigners against Al Ahli. I know Tae-Hee Nam is a South Korean, but what about the other 6? If AFC didn't change the rule, it seems obvious to me that Qatari clubs are trying to find a loophole by naturalising top class foreign players who have no NT caps thereby avoiding 3+1 rule. http://www.soccerway.com/matches/20...ions-league/al-shorta/al-ahli-jeddah/1232868/
Central Coast Mariners ground out an away 0-0 draw with Tianjin Teda in Group G. Quite an entertaining match despite the poor pitch and both sides giving the ball away needlessly meaning that there were few real chances. Some fool in the crowd was shining a laser beam into the eyes of CCM GK Matt Ryan which will mean some sanction against TT I suppose. CCM best chance came in injury time but the shot was parried by TT's Australian import Milan Šušak. A CCM win would have seemed rather hard on TT in the circumstances. However an away draw for CCM in freezing cold conditions a long way from home is really like a win. The Omani ref had a good game I thought. Good to see Adelaide United burst the Bunyodkor bubble. Really the Uzzies need to stop believing their own hype.
Video: 2,932 Guangzhou fans rules Jeonju World Cup Stadium http://v.youku.com/v_show/id_XMzYyMjAzNDY0.html Canton Union VS Mad Green Boys
Yes. Amazing really. Apparently, these are all Chinese students studying in Jeonju, South Korea. Knowing the importance of this match, Guangzhou contacted Chinese student association and offered them free jersey, free transportation and food for attending the game against Jeonbuk in Jeonju. Really have to give props for their elaborate plan and their attitude towards ACL. (Not to mention the $ they're throwing away for the players. The 3 foreign players who scored goals were all awarded $300k for each goal they scored, in addition to approximately $1 million bonus for winning the game)