Asian Champions League general discussion

Overseas Football
21

Lots of problems in Chinese football at the moment. Unpaid wages and covid have sent most of the best foreigners home. The last two seasons have been played behind closed doors in bubble hubs. Something foreigners easily get sick of. And now the start of this season has still yet to start even, because of covid.

On top of all that, I think because of the long quarantine requirements on re-entry to China, all of the participating Chinese teams have sent reserves to this tournament. So I would expect several more drubbings.

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22

So is Ekleson a free agent at the moment? And we have a marquee spot opening up?

23

Who the hell is Elkeson? Do you mean recently naturalised Chinese player 艾克森 (Ai Kesen)? According to wiki he’s signed for Gremio.

24

The last time we signed a 32yo forward who spent a few months at back in Brazil with Grêmio worked out okay.

25

Cheap? They were anything but cheap. Problem was they where having to offer huge unsustainable wages for foreigners

26

Yokohama up 2-1 against hoang anh gia lai

27

Just stumbled across the highlights of this on the twitters. Didn’t realise the Malaysian side have Shane Lowry (good cross for the opener) and also former Championship player Forestieri. The 2nd goal is right up there with the most hilarious of goalkeeping howlers, and apparently the Guangzhou defender who got red carded has since had his contract torn up by the club…

https://twitter.com/theafccl/status/1515190161721954304?s=21&t=YbdkZlT16ZfB1MmVinFmPw

Highlights of Shandong getting thumped 7-0 also. Looks like their keeper saw the 2nd goal above and said “hold my Tsingtao”.

https://twitter.com/theafccl/status/1515208368540905476?s=21&t=YbdkZlT16ZfB1MmVinFmPw

28

I haven’t seen it yet but surely that’s a bit harsh ripping up a players contract for a red card

29

GIF of that incident (it’s not great):

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30

Thanks for posting that. Da Fuq was he thinking?

Still ripping his contact up is a bit harsh

31
32

Ha wow that’s really bad. Was there other aggro in the lead up?

33

Final score as well. Own goal for the Vietnamese only goal, but maybe they won’t be the easybeats.

34

Big upset, Lion City Sailors 3-0 over Daegu.

Great day for them, love it.

Urawa also beat Shandong 5-0. Rough start for those reserves, will be a long way back from 2 losses to start their campaign and a -12 goal difference.

Melbourne City beat United City 3-0 and BG Pathum beat Jeonnam Dragons 2-0. Looks like maybe Jeonnam are not all that great.

Kawasaki Frontale just murdered Guangzhou, 8-0, and JDT surprised Ulsan Hyundai 2-1.

The Thai, Malaysian and Singaporean entrants are doing way better than expected so far, it’s cool.

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35

Jeonbuk Hyundai beat Yokohama F. Marinos 1-0 last night, so the group is still poised pretty evenly. Nobody running away with it like in some other groups.

  1. Jeonbuk - 4
  2. Yokohama - 3
  3. Sydney - 2
  4. Hoang Ahn Gia Lai - 1

Things could shape up a bit more in the 3rd matchday but right now Sydney are not dead and gone, especially as none of the four teams looks really great at the moment.

36

Not dead but realistically need 4pts out of the back to back games against Yokohama

37

Not mathematically gone but gone for all intents and purposes unless Hoang Ahn Gia Lai take some points of Jeonbuk and Yokohama which seems unlikely.

38

It is dead unless we win all our games.

Draws aren’t going to cut it

Corica can’t fuck up any more

39

More or less what bernie said. To get through to the next stage as a second-place team, a team will need at least 9 points, and we’re not exactly looking good for that. It’s not just the results, but the performances that are not filling me with confidence.

40

With the fact that they are excluding results against the 4th placed team this year it is hard to estimate exactly how many points will be necessary. In last year’s tournament Kitchee still missed out with 11 points from 6 games.

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