FC Seoul vs Guangzhou Evergrande

The first leg of the final of the ACL (Asian Champions League) ended in a 2-2 draw.
Goals scored by FC Seoul: Escudero 12', Damjanovic 83'
Goals scored by Guangzhou Evergrande: 30' Elkeson, 59' Gao Lin


The second leg takes place on the 9th of November in Guangzhou, at the moment, Guangzhou seem to have the upper hand and Seoul will have to pull off a good game away to take the win.

Ridiculous comeback in the Scottish Premier League

Motherwell 6 - 6 Hibernian

The defending was shocking to say the least, but the last goal was just the cherry on the top.

The 2013 Chinese Super League Winners - Guangzhou Evergrande

Just 2 days ago, Guangzhou Evergrande won the Chinese Super League for the 3rd consecutive year. Evergrande staff just released this image with the quote "be the best forever" but just how long will their dominance last?

However, this doesn't come as much of a surprise seing as they have players such as Dario Conca, Muriqui, Elkeson and Gao Lin. Furthermore, their coach, Marcello Lippi won the 2006 WC with the Italian national team, quite an impressive résumé for the coach of a Chinese league team. His move to china may have been slightly influenced by the two and a half year deal that Lippi currently has with the club, worth around 30 million euros, whereas Conca is earning around 12.5 million euros a year, placing him within the top 20 highest paid footballers of 2012 (above Ribery and Buffon).

Within the Chinese super league, Guangzhou Evergrande make clubs such as Monaco and PSG seem stingy when taking into consideration the amounts invested by surrounding clubs within their league. Not surprising when taking into consideration the fact that Evergrande Real Estate Group Ltd., the country's leading property developer, has the been the owner of the club since 2009.

The club has greater ambitions than just their relatively simple dominance on domestic turf. They are currently in the final of the AFC champions league and are due to play the first leg vs FC Seoul on the 26th of October  with the 2nd leg taking place on the 9th of November. Thus, the international stage is their new target, however it may still be a while before they're ready to take on teams such as Real Madrid(click here to see the highlights of the 7 - 1 bloodbath vs RM that took place in 2011).

Football in China

The current state of Chinese football

The above occurred at China's national sports meeting, it is probably quite an accurate decryption of the state of Chinese football. As you are probably aware the Chinese do not have the best of reputations in football but just how long will this reputation follow them? Last year the Chinese super league welcomed players such as Nicolas Anelka and Didier Drogba whom were playing alongside one another for Shanghai Shenhua. After 6 months of being there, Drogba only managed to drag the team from 13th to 9th place with 8 goals in 11 games , and Anelka maintained his impeccable reputation of being a lazy french bastard(just in case anyone forgot about the strikes in the 2010 WC) with 3 goals in 22 appearances.

It's not all doom and gloom

They currently have a couple of initiatives going to stimulate the growth of this sport within their country. One of them is could Vision China which is an attempt to set Chinese football standards as the highest in Asia. 

"At present, it is a 10-year plan, during which China wants to become a superpower in Asian football and rank in the top 20 in the world"

Not exactly achieved yet considering the state of its national team when compared to that of South Korea and Japan. Furthermore, North Korea managed to qualify for the world cup whereas the Chinese national team will be watching at home. However, if the Chinese business tycoons keep chucking ridiculous sums of money at some of the big names in football, it won't be too long til the next generation are nurtured within a football loving culture. When you think about, with a population of more than 1.3 billion, there's bound to be one or two Chinese Messi's lurking out there(but then again, there are countries like India whom seem to be athletically retarded).

My experience in Changzhou

Upon arriving in Changzhou I was pretty keen on playing some football, and after a week I managed to meet up with people through facebook for a quick 5-a-side kick-about. Needless to say, the level over here is a bit of a joke compared to England, but when surrounded by the right people, you can get some decent games going. There doesn't seem to be too much 11-a-side activity, and the 5-a-side's I usually play tend to mainly be with laowai(what the Chinese call us foreigners). Most of the locals who play here seem to be around 30 years old and up. This further illustrates the issue that most Chinese youngsters are simply not interested by the sport.

Shopping for football supplies in China

In terms of purchasing any football equipment, if you walk into a Nike or Adidas store, at the very best, they will have a Bayern Munich or Chelsea shirt on display, but it pretty much stops there. There's a wonderful website called taobao which sells everything and anything (you just need to know the pinyin for the item you want). I managed to purchase a 2012/13 Ajax away kit on it(not because I support the team or anything, just because the kit is awesome) for 88RMB which works out at around 9GBP(pretty sure it's fake but can't complain as I can't tell the difference). I haven't been having as much success with food shopping though, I can't seem to find creme fraiche anywhere in this country.