[FM18] The Hart Chronicles - Volume III: The Hart Dynasty

[PaulHartman71]

 

A brief look at the difference in income's for this season and last season  

[PaulHartman71]

After a decent World Cup, some very underwhelming performances in friendlies from Magath's side. 

 

 

They're playing decent teams of course, but 5 losses from 5 is really disappointing. 

 

In other NT news... 

 

 

Felix Magath is planning on retiring very soon, so his job should be up for grabs. I hope I can get it but maybe it is still early in the save for me to be considered as my reputation might not be thaaaat high just yet. 

[PaulHartman71]

March

 

 

None of the players brought in should expect to start, although it was nice to get Zhao Zhen on a permanent deal after having him on loan before. 

 

 

A late winner gave us a sweet sweet winner on the opening day, then we pulled out a good draw against Guangzhou. 

 

 

Start as you mean to go on 

 

Oh yeah for some reason we've gained a team and there's now 17 teams in the Super League. Not really sure why. Could be worse though, there's now 20 in Division 1  Swear there was only 16 in my first season in it  

[PaulHartman71]

April

 

 

2 wins, 1 draw and 2 losses in the league. The best win was probably the 2-0 against a hopeless Beijing side, but the one against Quanjian was enjoyable too. 

 

 

In 6th place. 

 

Some good news: 

 

 

Magath isn't retiring until the end of the calendar year now, so that gives me a bit more time to build my reputation up and nab the job. 

 

Some bad news: 

 

 

 

[andychar]

Run! Get out! While you still can!

Honestly you are doing an amazing job with the very limited finances.

[PaulHartman71]

May

 

 

2 wins, 1 draw and 1 loss in the league - not too bad going. We did unfortunately go out in the Chinese FA Cup earlier than I would've liked. 

 

 

6th in the league. 

 

Spoilers for June: 

 

Some interviews have been had 

[mrdanbartlett]

Ohhh exciting! I hope you can move on, £50k a week for wages is painful! 

[PaulHartman71]

 

I had to promise to reduce spending on wages, but I mean, I've still gained around £425K a week compared to Renren   

[PaulHartman71]

Oh and also this happened: 

 

[PaulHartman71]

June

 

 

Started with this team in both of my fixtures with China this month. 

I didn't get any say in the squad selection as the teams were already picked by the time I took the job, but here were the results for my first 2 games in charge of China, which were the first 2 competitive games of the new WC qualifying campaign: 

 

 

Afghanistan didn't give us any trouble at all. We breezed past them. I expected a tough game with Bahrain as them away from home is easily the most difficult game of the entire campaign, but we breezed past them too and were 3-0 up at half-time. So far, so good  

 

 

Bahrain bottom is mad. Maybe Laos will give us a bit competition? 

[PaulHartman71]

June

 

 

I had a quite tasty budget, so naturally the first guy I brought in was my old pal Chinese Cesc from Renren. More players will be signed in the coming days. 

 

 

We only managed a 2-2 draw in my debut, but in Wang Jin's debut he made sure we won with a 2nd half winner. He didn't have too bad of a month with this and his international form! Frank Lampard would be proud!

 

 

Hopefully we can get climbing the table. We'll improve more as I said so that should help. 

 

 

 

[PaulHartman71]

July

 

 

Spent like £6M or so on another 4 good Chinese players. 

 

 

Also sold off the foreign players we had in the squad back to South America. 

Wang Zhizhong is a solid CB who will be first choice going forward. Ma Pei is very highly rated, he won't start as we already have Lan Sis who is a starter for the NT too, but Pei is a great player to have in the squad and put pressure on. Yang Yunlong is a highly rated right winger who should come in handy even if he hasn't hit the ground running for us. Sun Yujing is possibly the most exciting of the bunch, only 17 and for a Chinese GK he looks absolute quality. Had to give him big wages to get him to come but he should be worth every penny. Will be in my next China squad for damn sure. 

 

 

 

A very busy July which saw a triumphant return to Renren for both me and Wang Jin who got the only goal in the game. We also got a late late winner at Shanggang which was fantastic. Shout out Luis Leguizamon too who got a hat-trick for me before I shipped him off  4 wins, 1 draw and 2 losses makes for a pretty good month in my books. 

 

 

Up to 8th and ahead of Renren!

[PaulHartman71]

August

 

 

A good month in August, with 3 wins, 1 draw and 1 loss. Zhou Meng was in excellent form. 

 

 

Not sure how much higher we can get by the end of the season. Huanghai have been horrific  

[PaulHartman71]

September

 

I removed all of the players from my China squad after the last fixtures were done, bit of a dummy mistake as in that time to the next squad selection, the U23 manager nicked most of the best U23 players for his squad. So we were without a few big names for our big game with Laos, but it wasn't too much of a problem... 

 

 

A fine hat-trick for Tan Bo being the highlight of this demolition of poor Laos. 

 

 

It's been an absolutely woeful campaign from a Bahrain side that I assumed would be our biggest rivals. To lose every one of their first 4 games in this kind of group is shocking. Afghanistan have been in decent form and we play them next, but I'm not too worried about them. Although an away trip there isn't the most appealing prospect... 

 

 

We also played Singapore in a friendly, which we won without too much trouble. 

[PaulHartman71]

September

 

 

Just 2 games in the league this month and unfortunately two losses. 

 

 

Yanbian putting a bit of pressure on Guangzhou at the top of the table. Huanghai still yet to win all season - and they thought putting an extra team in the league was a good idea!

[PaulHartman71]

October

 

 

3 wins from 4 to put a decent end to my first season in charge of Beijing. 

 

 

8th place certainly isn't too bad, but I want to build on this next season and push for the CL places, which is achievable with the resources at my disposal. 

[PaulHartman71]

October

 

 

We were back in action in the Asian WCQ. Zhang Yuning pulled his calf playing for Austria Wien, so he didn't feature, which meant a debut for 19 year old Huaxia striker, Qiao Kejun. 

 

 

Pretty happy with this overall. Obviously given that Afghan ended with 9 men and played much of it with 10 men you'd think we could've hit double figures, but I eased it down early on and kept it simple since we had Nepal away in a few days time. 

 

 

Despite going up 3-0 this wasn't a complete walkover, as Sagan Gurung scored twice for Nepal to give us something to really think about. Thankfully a late goal from Tan Bo to secure his hat-trick made sure we won. 

 

 

5 games gone and 15 points on the table. It would take something extraordinary happening for Laos to progress at our expense now. We have 1 more qualifier in November against Bahrain, other than that a couple of friendlies before my debut at the East Asian Cup in December. 

[mrdanbartlett]

LOVING this save!  

 

Made me laugh when I saw you had a £475k per week budget yet they are paying you £2k!

 

So pleased your at a bigger club, get those facilities up to speed ASAP, and well done on the national team, excellent results so far!

[andychar]

Look at Renren slide down the league without your leadership! 100% the right decision.

[PaulHartman71]

Season 6

 

 

I ditched Renren in June and it seems a pretty good move. We didn't do any better than I've done with Renren, but they were right near the bottom when I took over. I'm confident with the money and resources available that we won't finish lower than this next year. 

 

Squad

 

We have a decent squad, with 4 or 5 very good players. I'll look to improve with the best Chinese players I can in the winter break. We have a £10M budget so money is more or less no problem. 

 

 

GK

 

Sun Yujing was signed not long after I arrived and I'm very excited about this young keeper. For a Chinese keeper at 17 he is very very good and think how much he could improve in the next 5-10 years! I've already got him starting for the national team and the sky is the limit for this kid.  

 

DF

 

I signed Wang Zhizhong and he's probably the only defender worth shouting about. He's not bad for a Chinese lad, but the NT is pretty stacked with CBs that are better than him at the moment so he will probably only be playing at club level for me for now. 

 

MF 

 

Zhang Xizhe was at the club when I arrived. You might remember him as the set piece specialist in China's masterful 2-1 win against Portugal in the World Cup, as he got 2 assists in the biggest win in China's history. He's the club captain and a good experienced lad to have around, not sure how long he will keep his place in the team, but I think he's still good enough to be deputy LW for the NT, so on that basis he won't be replaced at club level just yet (unless I manage to sign the first choice). Wang Jin came with me from Renren and I'm really pleased with how he's played this season both domestically and internationally, he's not improved massively this season stat wise which could mean he's reached his peak, but I'm hoping he can get better with time and more matches. He's first choice for the national team and there's not anyone who's come around that's better than him yet.  Lan Si is our first choice CAM and he's a good young player, he's deputy in that position for the NT as the guy ahead of him is fairly better than him, but for a club like us who aren't yet one of the real players in the division, it's great to have him. I signed Yang Yunlong too, he's done reasonably well, at just 18 I'm hoping he can get better in the next few seasons. 

 

ST

 

Zhou Meng came through the youth system here at Beijing and at just 19 years old is first choice now the foreign players have left. He's a good talent and has a decent record, unfortunately for him he's not even in the Top 5 of the best Chinese strikers.  

 

----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Year    Team              Division               Position      Achievements
----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
2018    Shenzen Renren    Chinese 1st Division    8th          N/A
2019    Shenzen Renren    Chinese 1st Division    5th          N/A
2020    Shenzen Renren    Chinese 1st Division    1st          Promoted as 1st Division winners
2021    Shenzen Renren    Chinese Super League    7th          N/A
2022    Shenzen Renren    Chinese Super League    8th          Chinese FA Cup runners up
2023    Shenzen Renren    Chinese Super League    6th          Left in June
----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
2023    Beijing Gouan     Chinese Super League    8th          N/A
----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

 

Trophy Cabinet

 

Chinese 1st Division - 2020 (Shenzhen Renren)

 

[PaulHartman71]

November

 

 

Zhang Yuning was back fit for this set of games. 

 

 

We absolutely obliterated Bahrain, with Tan Bo grabbing 4 goals. Sensational stuff. 

 

 

Laos ain't catching us at this point. 

 

 

We also beat Iran in a friendly. 

[After]

The Wide Target Man seems to do wonders for you. 

What kind of goals is Tan Bo scoring?

[PaulHartman71]

26 minutes ago, After said:

The Wide Target Man seems to do wonders for you. 

What kind of goals is Tan Bo scoring?

 

He gets the odd header, but most of the time it is just him getting the ball on the right hand side of the box after making a good run and then just hammering it past the keeper. Some of the goals are from reasonably tight angles too where you see it and think "wow as if that went in!". 

[PaulHartman71]

 

This month saw my first venture in the bi-annual East Asian Cup. 

 

 

An absolutely horrific match which was to be my first loss as China manager. Maeyama had an absolute stormer as Japan made short work of our defence in this game. It really was awful and we never looked like doing much. A shame as we've looked so good in pretty much every other match we've played. 

 

 

A real turnaround against North Korea as we go from losing 4-0 to winning 4-0. A good performance from the team and we bounced back exactly like I would've liked. 

 

 

This game was ruined by Du Gongxun who was an absolute muppet. He came on as a substitute in the 52nd minute, within 6 minutes he managed to pick up 2 yellow cards and get sent off! He won't be getting a call up for a while. Even at 2-0 with 10 men we managed to get a goal back thanks to a smashing strike from Lan Si, but after we went all out to get level they caught us on the break. 

 

 

Not how I wanted my first tournament as China manager to go. 

[PaulHartman71]

Chinese National Team: Yearly Review - 2023

 

 

I took over in June ahead of the 1st round of the World Cup Qualifying campaign and we've done tremendously well so far: 

 

 

Laos away and Nepal at home to go, but we can lose both of those games and still qualify. I don't intend to do that, mind. 

 

Obviously we just had a bit of a letdown at the East Asian Cup, but Japan and South Korea are good sides who are probably still better than us at this point. 

 

 

Squad Overview

 

 

That's more or less the majority of players who have played for China in some capacity this year. 

 

GKs

 

Sun Yujing is my #1 and I don't think that's through club bias. He's the youngest of the 3 I tend to call up and I think he's got the most potential, my scouts and coaches at both club and international level agree. Li Weijie is 2nd choice and Guangzhou's first choice keeper, he's pretty good for a Chinese keeper too and I'd be more than happy to put him in if Yujing was injured. Lin Fei is another good prospect and I think it seems that he was going to be the golden boy for the future of Chinese GKs until Sun Yujing came on the scene.   

 

 

One interesting thing I noticed was that the two older lads who have 73 and 32 caps respectively, have both managed to find their way to Europe, with Dalei acting us a back-up keeper in the Czech Republic, whilst Yan Duling is 1st choice for Romanian side CFR Cluj. Bit weird really, but good for the the younger Chinese keepers as the older guys would probably be hogging a slot at a top Chinese club if they never moved. 

 

DR

 

Li Hailong is my preferred choice and he's also first choice for Guanzghou too. Li Jiakuo is a decent deputy, but I don't think there's much danger of him dislodging Hailong any time soon as he doesn't have high potential according to the coaches and scouts. 

 

DL

 

Ni Zhiqiang is the left back of choice and at only 19 he could well be it for many years to come. He plies his trade for Shandong in the league. Li Lei isn't primary a left back, but the 31 year old is our captain and and his versatility and leadership are still very useful in the squad. He essentially acts as 2nd choice left back, but can also slot in happily in midfield. He's a bit of a character too as he loves a long range free kick and bombing forward whenever he can. 

 

DC

 

Wen Wensheng is probably the best CB that China has to offer and at just 20 years old he's already a starter for Guangzhou. He's a very defensive player with some very nice stats and his great leadership skills mark him out as a potential future captain for sure. Liu Wei is his partner more often than not, he's 19 and plays his club football for Quanjian, they could well be a partnership for many years to come. Zhu Cao is the 3rd man in the frame though, he's 21 and he's actually Wensheng's partner at club level. I've not actually tried them as a partnership yet as I started with Wensheng and Wei and they did pretty well, most if not all of Zhu Cao's game time has come alongside Wei as Wensheng was injured. I will probably give Wensheng and Zhu Cao a run together at some point though to see how they do, but the reports all say that Wei has a much higher potential than Zhu Cao at the moment which has maybe influenced my decision a bit. 

 

DM

 

This is the one position that really gives me a headache the most. Fan Ke and Ren Yuefeng are both very good for young Chinese defensive midfielders, with the former a regular for Guangzhou and the latter a regular for Shandong. They're both 21 and very similar players, there's not too much between them. Fan Ke tends to get the nod as he has the benefit of being good at free kicks and corners, but it really could be either of them playing. In games against bigger teams I might actually drop my CAM and try a 3 of Yuefeng, Fan Ke and Wang Jin to see how that does. 

 

CM

 

Wang Jin is first choice and my golden boy for club and country, even if Tan Bo is a better player. I tend to prefer to bring on Li Lie or whichever of Fan Ke or Yuefeng aren't playing if I'm subbing him off, but the next best out and out CM is probably Du Gongxu, who I thought was kinda cool as he sounded like Dewgong the Pokemon, but that red card after 6 minutes of being on the pitch may well black list him for the indefinite future. 

 

AMR

 

Tan Bo was the absolute standout performer for the national team in my first 'year' in charge. 17 goals and 2 assists in 10 games is some record for someone playing at right wing, I was hesitant to use him there as he's more of a striker, but I wanted both him and Zhang Yuning in the side and Tan Bo is better on the wing than he is. It helps that Bo has been fantastic in that role, almost like C.Ronaldo in the sense he just dominates and does what he likes against the smaller sides. He managed 17 goals and 6 assists in 25 games for Panathinaikos in his first season in European football last year, which is really good and the best a Chinese player has done for sure. He got a £1.7M move to recently promoted PL side Huddersfield Town in the summer, I was really excited to see how he'd get on, but they're bottom of the league at Christmas and he's got just 6 sub appearances with no goals. A real shame to not see him getting game time at club level. If a fantastic right winger comes through then I may shift Tan Bo and drop Yuning, but I'm happy with how things are going for now. Wu Lei is the guy I've used as deputy the most, he's 34 and probably won't feature much in the next few years, but his fantastic club form for Guangzhou made it worth still having him squad, especially for his versatility and experience too.  

 

AML

 

Lin Liangming is in his mid 20's and he's another regular starter for Guangzhou. He's a pretty good player to have around and I can't see anyone taking his spot for a few years unless someone amazing comes through soon. Zhang Xizhe is his deputy for now, the older guy who of course got those assists against Portugal and plays for me at club level. 

 

CAM

 

Yang Dong is the 21 year old first choice, he plays domestically for Shanggang. He's a good talent with an eye for a goal and an assist. He'll be another who I expect to be in the side for a long time. Lan Si, his deputy, is also 21 and is my first choice CAM at club level. He's perhaps unfortunate that Yang Dong is around in the same generation as him, as he'll probably never be better than him so he may have to settle for being 2nd best for the majority of his national career. Maybe if he starts putting in some mega performances for me domestically I might pull the trigger on him internationally... 

 

ST 

 

Zhang Yuning is a very good target man and for the time being has possibly been overshadowed by the emergence of Tan Bo. Still, 5 goals and 6 assists in 9 games this year for China is very good going. He's going strong for Austria Wien too, as he's cemented himself as a regular for them: 

 

 

Qiao Kejun is the next best striker around and he's not bad himself at all, the 19 year old got 14 goals and 6 assists for Huaxia in the league this season and has 2 goals and 2 assists in his 4 caps so far. Perhaps another guy who will miss out due to better players being around at the same time as him. 

 

[PaulHartman71]

Some potentially good news for Renren in their fight to avoid going down, as there will be yet another team in the Super League next season: 

 

 

Although there's now potentially 3 teams who go down. The bottom 2 still go down, but 16th will now face a playoff against 3rd place in the 1st Division. 

[PaulHartman71]

 

Yang Dong won the Asian Young Footballer of the Year award, which is fantastic for him. 

 

 

I was much prouder of this one though, as Wang Jin got in the Asian Team of the Year which is pretty mad considering we're not even in Europe. 

[Tajerio]

1 hour ago, PaulHartman71 said:

 

 

I was much prouder of this one though, as Wang Jin got in the Asian Team of the Year which is pretty mad considering we're not even in Europe. 

I know what you meant here about continental competitions, but that was still pretty funny to read.

[PaulHartman71]

Haha I even had to re-read my post a few times as I couldn’t work out what you were getting at  

[PaulHartman71]

 

 

Forgot to mention I got the board to agree to this stuff at the end of the season.

[PaulHartman71]

 

 

These too just now. 

[PaulHartman71]

March

 

 

£7M spent on 3 players this summer. 

 

Chen Bing is a decent young left back who has a fair bit of international experience, although I think those caps must've come early in his career before better players come through. He's still good for this level though. Chen Jinming is a good defensive midfielder and will be first choice in this position after we managed to prize him away from Yanbian, where he was just a squad player. Li Jiakuo also joins, he's 2nd choice RB for the national team and will now be first choice for me at club level. 

 

 

Not the best start, although we have been without Wang Jin due to a broken arm he picked up playing for the Chinese U23s in the off season. Quanjian's new signing Eric Baily helped us come from behind to beat them, which was pretty nice. 

 

 

Renren are rock bottom in 18th...

[PaulHartman71]

March

 

 

I gave the Wensheng and Zhu Cao partnership a go for these two matches. 

 

 

We won our first game in Laos 5-1, with Zhang Yuning's goal being a landmark for both him and the history of Chinese football - 

 

 

A great moment for him as he takes over the record from Hao Haidong that has stood for a few decades. Yuning's record may not even last the year though, as Tan Bo himself after the Laos game went up to 38 goals. 

 

 

We then faced Nepal at home in our final group game and absolutely battered them 7-0. Lan Si got a start as Yang Dong was suspended, he did well and grabbed a brace. Lin Liangming was the standout player as he got a hat-trick. 

 

 

I couldn't have asked for more as we won every single group game to progress. The other group winners were: Iran, U.A.E, Australia, Iraq, Uzbekistan, South Korea and North Korea. The teams that went through as best 2nd place were: Japan (who finished level on points but worse goal difference than U.A.E.), Syria, Qatar and Pakistan. 

I was surprised to see Japan not win their group, but both them and U.A.E beat every other team then they won 1, lost 1 against each other. So I guess UAE just smashed the smaller teams more. Bahrain of course in our group being so woeful was possibly the biggest surprise, Pakistan making the final qualifying stage seems a bit crazy although they did get through as 2nd place in a group consisting of North Korea, Sri Lanka, India and Maldives. The only other somewhat surprise was Saudi Arabia who had a really poor campaign as they finished 4th in their group behind South Korea, Jordan and Indonesia. 

Not sure how the draw for the next round is done. If it's done based on rankings it could be very interesting: 

 

 

So on that basis we could be looking at groups like: 

 

Iraq 
Uzbekistan
Iran
Japan
Qatar
Syria

Australia 
South Korea
UAE
China
North Korea
Pakistan

 

With just 2 going through and the 3rd making a Playoff, we could really do with avoiding a group stage where we end up with 2 or 3 of the likes of Australia, South Korea and Japan. UAE are no mugs as we only managed to draw against them twice in the qualifiers for the last World Cup, Qatar weren't great when we played them, we recently smashed North Korea and we have beaten Iran in a friendly. Uzbekistan seem like a bit of a dark horse as they have quite a high ranking, although didn't make the last World Cup. Pakistan probably the only real whipping boy, as even Syria don't seem a terrible side. 

[PaulHartman71]

 

Jesus that's a rough group  Australia and South Korea both very good sides, with UAE as well quite strong. Qatar are certainly no mugs and won't give us easy games, with Pakistan probably the only guaranteed 6 points. 

[PaulHartman71]

April

 

 

A very strong month, even if the majority of our games were against poorer sides, we won 4 from 5 which is great. 

 

 

Renren remain bottom, still with just 1 point. 

[PaulHartman71]

May

 

 

The games came round thick and fast this month. The biggest disappointment was going out in the Chinese FA Cup, but other than that we picked up 5 wins and 1 draw this month, which is fantastic. We smashed my old side Renren and only conceded in the league this month against Wuhan, Wuhan clan ain't nothing to **** with. We comfortably beat Yanbian too, who seem to have really dropped off this season after being a threat for the last few years. 

 

 

Have a game in hand on some sides, but we're doing really really well. Renren now have 2 points. 

[PaulHartman71]

 

The 2024 Paris Olympics are coming up and I thought we'd have a go. A lot of the better players we have will eligible as they're young enough, plus we can take 3 overage players, so I definitely think we can have a good crack at this. 

 

 

Spain the obvious danger in that group, but I'm quietly confident we can get through it. 

[PaulHartman71]

June

 

 

A couple of summer friendlies against foreign sides that are just above us in the World Rankings at the minute: 

 

 

Costa Rica gave us a hell of a game and lead for 85 minutes, but a tremendous fight-back was rounded off by a superb strike from Wang Jin late on to equalise. 

 

 

A tight game against Montenegro was won thanks to a late header from substitute CB Gao Zhunyi. 

[PaulHartman71]

June

 

 

A few more signings were confirmed. 

We spent just over £1M on unwanted Guangzhou player, Liu Ruofan, who is 25 and a pretty decent striker who can also play anywhere in attacking midfield. I've not decided where exactly I'll use him just yet, but his versatility and ability made him worth taking a punt on. Yang Dong joins on a free, I actually only noticed he was a free transfer during picking of the last friendlies for China. Seems he couldn't agree a deal with Shanggang for a new contract so he ended up released, I had to offer him a big deal for him to join us but he's worth the money as he's a great player. Feel a bit for Lan Si as this means he might be playing second fiddle for club and country now, but Yang Dong can also play on the left wing so I'm experimenting with him there. 

 

 

A brilliant game with Guangzhou which saw us come from 3-1 down to level in the 88th minute, which was a real moment. We followed that up much later in the month with a disappointing loss at home to Tianjin, but we bounced back to beat Shanggang in a ding-dong 4-3. 

 

 

We're right up there which is great to see at the half way stage. For anyone keeping track, Renren now have 3 points. 

[PaulHartman71]

 

I didn't actually get to pick this squad as despite taking charge of the team, the U23 manager picked the squad. I'm not sure if he will now take charge at the Olympics, we'll see, if they give him the first game then I'll just have to give him the boot and take on the rest of the tournament myself  

Squad doesn't seem too different from what I would've gone for, I would've used Yang Dong and had Zhang Yuning in there though. 

[PaulHartman71]

 

Pretty odd. Got this message about my star keeper missing training. Pretty hard for him to be at training anyway when he's away at the Olympics in Spain ffs  

Oh so it actually turns out he's bunked it to the point of not turning up for selection in our 2nd group game at the Olympics...

 

 

What a *****  

[PaulHartman71]

 

Pretty odd. Got this message about my star keeper missing training. Pretty hard for him to be at training anyway when he's away at the Olympics in Spain ffs  

[PaulHartman71]

Olympic Games

 

 

The squad is pretty similar to the normal team, although we have to play defensive mid, Yang Zhen, at CB because the U23 manager decided to only call up 1 natural CB and no back-up defenders. Good job buddy. 

 

 

Our opening match saw us take on Cameroon and it was a really tight game, we defended well and had Sun Yujing in goal who is very good and kept Cameroon at bay. 

 

 

The next match against the USA had everything. It was crazy. Yujing had bunked off so we had to put Lu Weijee in goal (I like to think it's pronounced like Luigi ) and at half-time it was 0-0 again and I thought maybe another draw. Nope. USA took the lead straight away, but then we responded brilliantly and Lan Si scored a great goal from outside the box. Yang Dong then headed in from a corner to make it 2-1 and put us in-front. Tan Bo started a counter attack which lead to a bizarre goal from Du Gongxun where he shot, it took a huge deflection off a defender and then hit the post and went in, somehow wasn't given us an own goal, but we were 3-1 up so we didn't care. The USA then fought back against tired Chinese legs, making it 3-2 and then scoring a sickening late equaliser which came after Lu Weijee saved a penalty brilliantly, but McKennie hit home the rebound. I thought that was it and we were down and out. I sent everyone forward and then somehow we got a goal on the break from an American corner. Qiao Kejun was running with the ball at goal in the 95th minute and I just expected it to come to nothing, but then he kinda went outwide and got a cross in for TAN BOOOOOOOOOOOOO to head home and give us the win. It was a glorious moment. 

 

 

The hosts beat us 1-0 in the final game, but in the end it didn't matter as we went through at Cameroon's expense on goal difference...

 

 

Colombia awaits in the Quarter Final!

[PaulHartman71]

July

 

 

We lost quite a few of our key players due to the Olympics so this was always going to be a tricky month, in the end we ended up with 2 wins and 3 losses. Not great by our usual standards, but we put up a decent fight in most of the games given the circumstances. 

 

 

Still only 5 points off of 1st with those losses. Renren actually have 11 points now. 

[PaulHartman71]

July

 

 

We lost quite a few of our key players due to the Olympics so this was always going to be a tricky month, in the end we ended up with 2 wins and 3 losses. Not great by our usual standards, but we put up a decent fight in most of the games given the circumstances. 

 

 

Still only 5 points off of 1st with those losses. Renren actually have 11 points now. 

[PaulHartman71]

 

A real shame as we go out at the Quarter Final stage. The main problem was the original manager picking up a stupid squad with no other defenders, so I couldn't really rotate them much so they were all knackered. It got to the point where I had right wingers and attacking mids playing at full back as the full backs were knackered or injured, by the end of the Colombia game we had 4 players on 40-50 percent. We still gave Colombia good go though and Tan Bo got us a late goal to put us really back into the match after going 3-1 down and looking out of it. 

[PaulHartman71]

August

 

 

With the Olympics out of the way we got back on track again in the league, with 6 games this month and no losses, just 4 wins and 2 draws which is pretty good going. Got a bit of revenge on the Wuhan Clan by smacking them 5-1, we actually almost dropped points at Renren which would have been embarrassing. 

 

 

Clubs have games in hand on us, but we're right up there as the league comes to a close. Renren on 12 points are well down already. 

[PaulHartman71]

September

 

 

 

 

One of the toughest games of the qualification period. They took an early lead and I feared a drubbing, but we held firm and managed to stay in the game. We had a few half chances but nothing too great, disappointing start but we go again. 

 

 

Apart from Pakistan, the weak link in the group, we were fighting back and forth for half an hour even after we took the lead, but after the penalty it was plain sailing. Tan Bo's late goal was the icing on the cake. 

 

 

Looking tight already. It is probably going to be a 4 horse race for the 3 spots. Australia and South Korea both hammered Pakistan 3-0, with the UAE also beating Qatar 3-0 and picking up a somewhat surprise home win against South Korea. 

We've got South Korea away from home next month which will be hard, but maybe good to get the trickier away games out the way. We also have Pakistan at home which should be a walk in the park. UAE have Pakistan so they should pick up 3 from that, with Australia at home to Qatar you'd imagine they'd win that. Australia and UAE do face each other on the match day we play Pakistan so hopefully that's a 0-0 or something so they both drop points, with South Korea going to Qatar, maybe Qatar could get something, probably not though. 

[deltablue]

I imagine you'll make the playoff at least. 

[PaulHartman71]

September

 

 

1 win, 1 loss in September.