China's been piling up the pressure on South Korea now. Needs to keep on pushing and a 3rd might come.
Yu Hai has a good pop with a header from a corner, angle was terrible though and it was way off target. China's turning on the pressure though, and this is positive regardless.
Yu Hai has moved centrally up top, looks like he's playing off of Gao Lin, Wu Lei, and Hao Junmin. We're going all out now. Defense is playing a very high line now though, we will be pretty susceptible to Korean counter attacks... and those are pretty dangerous with the players they have.
Wow Yu Hai has turned up his performance... he looks a lot more comfortable playing more forward. His runs are quite good actually, especially at this late stage... Had a close call with a pass to Wu Lei but he couldn't get on the end of it cleanly.
4 minutes of added time. Forward momentum has slowed down quite a bit though... hopefully we still got a little left in the tank to make the final push.
Ow well. At least China rallied themselves in the last 25 mins and Yu Hai was a completely different player once he was allowed to move up the pitch.
3-2 FT Can't say it was a terrible performance though. I think we had some bad defensive lapses for the 2 goals in the second half but we were able to keep up in the number of shots against a very strong SK team. We were the more threatening team for a good stretch of the second half as well. Can't say I like having Wu Lei alone up top... he's still too light weight against good physical opponents and he doesn't really have the consistent finishing to be relied upon alone. Having a Yu Hai, Gao Lin, or Yu Dabao would probably help a lot in that they can all supply balls to him in better situations rather than having him chase down long balls all game.
ah.. first half was terrible. Midfield did not do anything, no marking or pressuring ball holders. 2nd half Korea started playing like China in the first half lol so we scored.. Anyways Ren Hang cannot mark anyone and going forward he is bad. Put in Jiang Zhipeng, he cannot mark either but at least he is good moving up. Zhao Mingjian did much better than Zhang Linpeng creating a lot of chances and completing passes from RB. Hao Junmin is so crucial with his passes! Wu Xi getting subbed off was great. Could've been better. At least it's not 3-0! woooooooo.
the hupu forum is blasting zhang linpeng, ren hang, and then wu lei. i guess those three, especially zhang linpeng, won't be having good sleep tonight.
They don't deserve too much flak imo, unlike our defenders+some other players+Stielike right now. Despite the win and 3 points, our performance was terrible and I have no idea what our manager was thinking by bringing this squad and his questionable tactics either. All I can say is that despite losing by a goal difference, your team managed to keep the game close even after being down by 3 goals. And, although some may disagree with me here, but right now I feel that Gao Hongbo is the best manager of all the others you guys have been working with, and he's shown to be very decent in building a strong squad as well. Also do note that he's the only Domestic Manager to have gotten a win against us in your history.
Zhang Linpeng got destroyed by Son on a regular basis. I don't think that's something to be surprised at nor should he take that much blame on it... put another defender there and the result is the same. Zhao Mingjian looked better if only because Son was likely tiring and the momentum had shifted up until Son came off. Ren Hang was to blame for 2 of the 3 goals, bad awareness on both. The first header he meekly went back for a defensive header because he had no idea Lee Chungyong was able to challenge for that ball. The second goal he lost his mark and looked silly at the recovery. If it didn't go in it would have been a penalty against him anyway as long as Koo went down. Wu Lei performed well in the sense that he got the chances he needed to get. He just lacks consistent finishing, because we know he can do it at least at the club level. I think he's more a victim of the tactics around the NT, which seems to think long balls that he can chase the whole game is the best strategy. International defenders aren't the same as CSL defenders, and his pace was nullified pretty easily by even a rather lackluster Korean defense. By the time the supporting cast came on today, it was already rather late in the game and his runs didn't have the same burst as before. He does have good pressuring though and clearly has the tools to use them with a good supporting cast around him. The introduction of Hao Junmin and Yu Hai in a central role really showed this today, and Gao Lin would be a good partner too on paper, though we haven't really seen it in practice. We also have another big forward in Yu Dabao who we can use as well... I'm in agreement with the opinion that Gao is our best choice as NT manager relative to the previous coaches. He seems to command some degree of respect with the players, and he had the chance to gather a good core group on his last stint that was unfortunately cut short. I think more stability without jumping the shark on the next B- or C-list international coach will give us a good chance going forward with this coming generation.
Gao Hongbo congratulated us on our first win of the WCQs, but he also left with much confidence. He said that the 3 goals conceded was a mistake/error on behalf of the entire coaching staffs end, but he was pleased with the fact that they were able to come back to score 2 goals and keep the game close. He's confident in building a much stronger Chinese NT than before. Btw, why did he leave the Chinese NT again?
LOLOLOL wow.... Camacho was the biggest waste of money ever. I can't believe your FA was dumb enough to sack a man who was already on a steady track at rebuilding the Chinese NT over a joke who did jack squat. Then again, our FA was dumb enough to sack a manager in the middle of the 2014 FIFA WCQs and forced the job on two managers that did not want the job in the first place, so I can understand your frustration as well.
i wonder where the hell camacho is right now. i won't be surprised he is in thailand looking for a management job now.
Kind of a random question, but why wasn't Shi Ke called up to the NT? He had a solid partnership with Kim Ju-young last week against Jeonbuk.
Shi Ke has been off and on this season. Sometimes he plays really well and other times he is a liability. I'm more so wondering about Ji Xiang. Hes been consistently good this season for Jiangsu.
Is Yu Hai going to play for Chinese national team in next match? How do you rate him on scale of 1-10 1 the top and 10 the worst in your national team? Btw, I want to see this Wu Lei guy against Iran. I heard too much talk about him from Chinese folks.
I'd rate Yu Hai in the middle. Doesn't do much offensively for a winger but defensively decent. Wu Lei is great, but he's been deployed as the lone striker (which doesn't suit him). He plays best on the wings, particularly right wing.