After the first five rounds of the Chinese Super League, Harbour Team has solidified their lead with an impressive record of 3 wins and 2 draws, which is impressive. When playing at home, they beat their opponents 3-1 consecutively, showing strong attacking power. Compared to last season, the team's strength in offense has improved significantly.
Seaport's offense was on fire, Oscar returned from injury in great shape, scoring two goals in the 3-0 win over Nantong Zhiyun in the last round, reaching the peak of his individual ability. Wu Lei, on the other hand, was on fire, scoring five goals and successfully topping the scorer's list, becoming an unstoppable weapon in the team's offense.
On the defensive side of the ball, Seaport has also performed well, with an average of only 0.8 goals conceded per game, making the defense amazingly stable. The team's unique defense strategy and the tacit understanding between players make it difficult for opponents to find a breakthrough, which is awe-inspiring.
In the five rounds of confrontation at the beginning of the season, Taishan only achieved two wins, two draws and one loss, accumulating eight points, and the points gap with leader Shenhua has widened to seven points, which undoubtedly adds a lot of difficulty to their road to the championship.
Taishan team is currently trapped in the injury plague, Zheng Zheng, Wang Dalei, Kressan, Jadason and other key players are injured, although Li Yuanyi, Liu Binbin and Shi Ke has returned to the team training, but the team lineup is still difficult to reach the strongest state.
More worrying is that the Taishan team has recently been frequently caught in public opinion storms, share reform, bonus disputes, tax reimbursement, player strikes and other issues come one after another, bringing great psychological pressure on the team.
In the last round of the match against Henan, Taishan team had more numbers than their opponents, but the score of 2-2 was hardly satisfactory. The team's overall performance seemed to be in the doldrums, the players had no fighting spirit, and coach Choi Kang-hee showed helplessness and anxiety many times.
In the past Yokohama Mariners coach Muscat has been a nightmare for the AFC Champions League. The outlook for the Taishan team is even less optimistic in this Chinese Super League encounter.
This game is about whether or not the Taishan team has fallen behind the watershed in their quest to win the title this season. If they lost again, they could bid farewell to the tournament early. However, with such low morale, Taishan looked like a defeated army. Facing the mighty Harbour, Choi Kang-hee's men may only be able to seek a silver lining on the beach in this battle.
