The Qingdao players met up with new recruit Welshman S_Williams this week and he seems to have settled in immediately. Some eyebrows were being raised at the lack of transfer activity at the Zhongneng Stadium but manager Paul Weare has gone on record as saying he will not be buying players just for the sake of it and that he will only be bringing in players if it is of benefit to the squad. Williams was lured to the club via the scouting system and comes with the following stats: S_Williams 23 wal 1 20 7 5 32 800 800 800 800 and cost the club $29,251,441.20 Williams is not what many would consider to be the typical player that manager Paul Weare would go for as he is an out and out defender who does not have the greatest passing ability. Having said that he does add great depth to the defence, which is something that many considered to be the main weakness of the squad last season. When asked whether Williams would make his debut against Sao Paulo on opening day all Paul would say was you will have to wait and see.
Paul is believed to be currently looking for more players to bring in and when asked who would be leaving said “any player is available as long as the deal is right for Qingdao”. SANTA FE, COLOMBIA Independiente's New Adventure Yet again a new division in the ROTW wing series arrives at the door of Columbian side Independiente Santa Fe. Following their two straight promotions and last season's unbeaten championship, Independiente started their campaign in style with a feisty 1-0 win at home to their long standing rivals, Newcastle United Jets who have also been promoted in successive seasons. Despite it being early days in division 1 and with his board content with survival, manager Edward Tomlin was clear on his intentions for the season: "Obviously, after last season's fantastic run, we feel under pressure from ourselves to keep winning games and keep our unbeaten run going for as long as possible. We owe it to our fans to give them something to be truly proud of, and to ourselves as a team to give performances we are proud of. I think it is good pressure because the sooner we get points and build confidence, the better for the team and perhaps we can seal that 3rd promotion. What we have unlike other clubs is a relatively settled squad and from that comes a confidence and the ability to change our tactics to our strengths and other teams weaknesses." Independiente's next fixture is another home tie against Waitakere City, who like Santa Fe are renowned for being solid first and foremost. Independiente captain and enforcer, Fredy Guarin was quick to recognise the importance of a team effort in this tough match up: "For sure, it will be a tough match and we will all have to be at our best to beat Waitakere. Last week we were very pleased not to concede a goal because our defence and midfield worked very hard to keep Newcastle out, we got what we deserved. I am not sure where I will play on Saturday, but I am just glad to be playing football after being on the sidelines at Sao Paolo." And certainly, since his cut price move to Independiente Santa Fe, Guarin and the club as a whole have made massive strides as a team. "It is good to have a manager who has faith in his team to play the way he wants. We don't know what we are going to get out of every game, but we know exactly what we have to give." If Independiente don't go up this season, it won't be for want of trying. QINGDAO ZHONGNENG vs RIVER PLATE Qingdao Zhongneng entertained River Plate this weekend in a grudge match that both teams wanted to win badly. Qingdao Zhongneng team L_Zhenli I_Fyfe G_Perez Ya_Jie A_Iniesta S_Alloudi L_Galletti D_Landzaat K_Nakamura R_Falcao Mo Subs: Y_Jun S_Williams
Filipe_Alvim J_Thompson Alan_Smith Both sides were wary of each other and adopted counter attack tactics the opening exchanges were pretty even when in the 13th minute Ya_Jie picked up an injury which led to him having to be replaced by S_Williams. After the substitution Qingdao had a 15 minute purple patch midway through where they created a number of chances with river Plate failing to create anything. This culminated in the main talking point of the match in the 30th minute when Landzaat was clean through on the River Plate goal only to be knocked to the floor for a blatant penalty only for referee Jeff Winter to turn away (that was only one of several very poor decisions by Mr Winter during this match). That appeared to affect Qingdao badly as they went off the boil and the game became a bit of a non match until just before half time River Plate hit Qingdao with a sucker punch when Lestuffio scored to make it 1 – 0 that is how it remained until half time. The second half saw Qingdao lay siege to the River Plate goal but they could not find a way past Currizo in goal, it wasn’t until the dying minutes of the match that River managed an attempt on the Qingdao goal. Final score: Qingdao Zhongneng 0 – 1 River Plate Qingdao Zhongneng “one in one out” we get the managers views Qingdao Zhongneng said goodbye to one of their senior pros this week when Alan Smith moved on to join up with Catolica for 14 million. Some might say that 14 million is a very small fee for a player with very good stats and with close to 4 seasons left, when asked about this Qingdao manager Paul Weare had this to say: “I didn’t want to see Alan leave but we needed to generate some cash quickly, we did have an abundance of quality up front so unfortunately Alan was the player who I thought we could afford to be without in order to generate that cash. I would like to wish Alan all the best at Catolica where I am sure he will enjoy his football as he will have move chance of first team football.” Straight after Alan Smith moved to Catolica, Qingdao welcomed their second new recruit of the season a young 17 year old defender called Owain Glyndwr who was scouted from the Welsh leagues. We again managed to get a few words from Paul: “Owain is a classical Welsh defender who is going to have a wonderful future and is sure to go down in folklore. Some people have jokingly said that first I signed S Williams and now O Glyndwr both from Welsh non league sides am I trying to create a defence full of Welshmen; I laugh and say remember Rourkes Drift the Welsh defended pretty well there and then quote the famous line from the song Men of Harlech from the film Zulu “Welshmen never yield”. “Glyndwr is a defender that is not only for the future but is very much a player for the here and now, he is a competent young man and his stats are:" O_Glyndwr 17 wal 1 19 7 7 18 300 300 300 300 and has cost us the sum of $28,248,047.34. "We started the season with 3 recognised defenders and 2 defensive midfielders who could play there if required with Glyndwr joining us we now have 5 recognised defenders which means that we have a much more balanced squad.” Qingdao Zhongneng pre Interwing Cup clash review This weekend sees us take on Sunderland in the Interwing Cup. Last weekend saw us narrowly defeat Birmingham City 2 - 1 whilst Sunderland went down 1 – 0 to Anderlecht. Sunderland have been playing 3 youth players so far this season whereas we decided that we would not play a youth player but that we should play our best players. Sunderland have yet to score a goal this season where we have been free scoring, everything points to a win for us but with football you just never know, so we won’t be counting our chickens just yet. I won’t deny it but we are going all out to win this match as it would put us into a very strong position in the Interwing Cup before we return to league football. The side for this weekends match is as follows: GK L_Zhenli DF I_Fyfe DF G_Perez DF A_Iniesta MF S_Alloudi MF L_Galletti FW D_Landzaat DF Filipe_Alvim FW K_Nakamura FW Mo FW J_Thompson Subs: GK Y_Jun DF S_Williams DF O_Glyndwr MF V_Zapata FW R_Falcao |
The opening game of season saw Qingdao playing arch rivals Sao Paulo in a game that many envisaged as being a very tight encounter, as it turned out it was anything but a tight encounter. Starting line ups: Qingdao 4-2-2-2 C Paul WeareGoal Keeper: L_Zhenli Defenders: I_Fyfe, G_Perez, Ya_Jie, A_Iniesta Mid Fielders: S_Alloudi, L_Galletti Attacking Midfielders: D_Landzaat, K_Nakamura Forwards: Mo, R_Falco SUBS: Y_Jun, S_Williams, Filipe_Alvim, V_Zapata, J_Thompson Sao Paulo FC 3-1-3-1-2 P Mark Leslie Goal Keeer: I_Abdullahi Defenders: H_Martinez, D_Cervantes, F_da_Costa Defensive Midfielder: F_Romeu Mid Fielders: A_Fernandes, T_Afolabi, Jerry_Garcia Attacking Midfielder: P_Phillips Forwards: L_Agyemang, C_Valencia SUBS: B_das_Neves, H_Fowler, R_Arancibia, M_Fernandes, J_Eze The game started at a hectic pace with both sides pushing forward at every opportunity but the first major talking point came when Sao Paulo keeper Abdullahi appeared to injure himself, he was duly replaced by his deputy Das_Neves. Despite hitting the post twice inside the first 20 minutes Qin had to wait until the 23rd minute to register their first goal when Alloudi raced past the last defender and fired a shot into the top corner. In the 31st minute Valencia thought he had equalised for Sao Paulo only for the effort to be ruled out for offside.
Qin made it 2 - 0 soon after when Alloudi turned provider this time laying the ball off to fellow central midfielder Galletti who at the second attempt managed to slot the ball past the despairing keeper. Qin were in free flow now and made it 3 – 0 just on half time when Mo scored a wonderful individual goal curling a long range shot into the top corner. Half Time: Qingdao Zhongneng 3 – 0 Sao Paulo FC The second half saw Qin start slowly and in the 51st minute a rash challenge from Perez on Romeu could have seen a way back for Sao Paulo but the referee saw it differently and awarded a free kick the other way. The next 15 minutes saw a number of substitutions from either side:
Qin: Filipe_Alvim for A_Iniesta DF for DF Sao: M_Fernandes for P_Phillips AM for AM Qin: J_Thompson for R_Falcao FW for FW Qin: S_Williams for Ya_Jie DF for DF Sao: H_Fowler for F_da_Costa DM for DF Qin gave a debut to new signing S_Williams and it also saw Sao Paulo throw caution to the wind and go all out attacking. Even more astounding was that they took off one of their 3 defenders and replaced him with a defensive midfielder leaving them with only 2 at the back, a master stroke or suicide? 68th minute saw the Qingdao pressure pay off when Galletti scored a pearler of a free kick bending it into the corner to make it 4 – 0. It was all one way traffic now and it was looking like a case of how many Qin could score. 79th minute the keeper finds that he is not going to get any luck when a header from Galletti is turned onto the post only for it to rebound onto his back and into the net this completes completes his hat trick (5 – 0). 83rd minute minute and Williams marks his debut with a smartly taken goal as he turns on a sixpence to bury it past the keeper (6 – 0). 86th minute and Cervantes one of Sao Paulos 2 defenders left on the pitch is injured and has to leave the pitch, unfortunately all 3 subs have been used and Sao Paulo are forced to play the remaining minutes with 10 men and only 1 defender A minute later Alloudi nets his second of the game after a kinky dribble and a cheeky finish (7 – 0). On 90 minutes Mo rounds off the scoring with the second of his brace with a delicate header after a diagonal pass from Fyfe. Full Time: Qingdao Zhongneng 8 – 0 Sao Paulo FC Sao Paulo may look at the injury to Keeper Abdullahi in the 16th minute as the main turning point in the game but to be honest the way Qingdao went about their job today it is doubtful that had Abdullahi and Das_Neves been in goal together it would have made much difference. Qingdao now look forward to welcoming River Plate next weekend and are due backin training tomorrow morning. Qingdao Zhongneng Pre Interwing Cup Review
Qingdao Zhongneng embark on their Interwing Cup exploits this weekend where they will be looking to pick up where they left off last season when they managed to get to the quarter finals before losing out to Cardiff City. Qingdao Zhongneng has been drawn in Group 2 along with Sunderland, Anderlecht, Birmingham City, Athletico Madrid and Independiente Santa Fe. They have been tipped as one of the two sides to qualify from this group; this will need them to get off to a good start as they open with a tricky tie against Birmingham City, who are also being tipped to qualify from the group. Paul Weare has almost a full squad to choose from although the loss of central defender Ya Jie will come as a blow but it is unlikely that he will allow that to worry him. Qingdao Zhongneng side to be chosen from: L_Zhenli 23 chn 25 1 1 1 34 I_Fyfe 26 aus 1 20 15 7 23 G_Perez 24 uru 1 20 14 12 15 S_Williams 23 wal 1 20 7 5 32 A_Iniesta 30 spa 1 18 18 5 22 Filipe_Alvim 29 bra 1 17 19 3 29 S_Alloudi 25 mor 1 15 24 7 39 L_Galletti 29 arg 1 8 22 11 26 V_Zapata 29 arg 2 4 19 16 36 D_Landzaat 29 hol 1 9 18 18 40 K_Nakamura 22 jpn 1 9 18 19 11 Mo 21 bra 1 8 15 20 34 J_Thompson 27 net 1 3 15 20 31 R_Falcao 24 col 1 12 13 20 35 Alan_Smith 31 eng 1 10 13 20 27 Unstoppable Atlas? After a Terrible 1st season with Atlas Adam Walker has picked things up at last.
With a win and a draw in the League and a credible draw against Dundee Utd in the Interwing. There's no denying Atlas are a team to be feared once more. Despite this dream start Walker is keeping his feet on the ground. "This year is all about buliding for the future, last season I was lazy and the results I got were exactly what I deserved. This season we're going back to basics, with a strong versatile back 4, a creative midfield and 2 young strikers that can only get better." Lets hope Atlas can keep up this unbeaten run. When the Catolica board appointed a relative unknown in Scott Matthews, many fans were dubious as to what effect he would have on their once proud team, now found in the depths of division two. Now, coming into the fourth week of his reign, the fans are 100% behind the eccentric young Englishman. With a win in his first game, and two draws to follow in the IW cup, Scott has certainly proved he can back his sharp words with sharp results. “When I first took over, I was quite shocked at the average age of our squad here, and that was the first thing I looked at altering.” Alter he has, and now with his new signings already looking settled, surely things can only get better? “Well, despite our results, we are continually predicted losses, which I can understand, but it’s good to prove the critics wrong.” With a big game away at Boca this weekend, the favourites for div 2, what does Scott think will happen? “Well, lets be realistic, I have completely changed this side, most of the experience has gone, which I’ve replaced with youngsters like young Silva (he is 15!) so I fully expect our run to come to an sooner or later, but that isn’t going to change the way I want my side to play, I like attacking, adventurous football, and a s long as we deliver that, the score is irrelevant.” Finally, we asked Scott about his long term plans, “I’m going to continually blood some youngsters for a while yet, then, hopefully in around four/five years, the Catolica fans will have a young, experienced side capable of challenging for the top!” From what we saw of the fans, there is a certain glimmer back in their eyes, and this young side are definitely a team on the up! |