2009 Dec 08 Talking Balls: Groups of Death and Deathly Groups
The AFC Champions’ League draw took place yesterday. Beijing Guoan’s reward for winning the CSL title is Kawasaki Frontale, J.League runners-up in three of the past four years, K-League runners-up Seongnam Ilhwa and reigning A-League champions Melbourne Victory. Matches begin on February 23rd.
The SportAccord Combat Games have been confirmed to take place in late August and early September next year. The event will feature 13 disciplines – some of which are familiar to the Olympics and others that are much more brutal. Fans of seeing split lips and bruising will have to wait ‘til then for the accompanying cultural program.
Real Madrid and their publicity shy star Ronaldo have stated that they will return to Beijing as part of their 2010/11 pre-season tour. Which galacticos that make the trip remains to be seen, as the August 8th date is less than a month after the World Cup final.
According to Sina.com, Miroslav Blazevic is currently negotiating a deal to manage Shanghai Shenhua. If they can get the man that took Croatia to the 1998 World Cup semis then they’ll be doing OK. If they can get Ruud Gullit, who will be in Shanghai this month, then they’ll really put Chinese football on the map.
One other piece of Shanghai shadenfreude is that present coach Zhu Jun refused to pay the wages of five of his players. The reason? They were too passive. Those guilty were Du Wei (who used to be on a short loan to Celtic), Gao Lin, Sun Xiang (who used to play for PSV Eindhoven and FK Austria Wien), Sun Ji and Qiu Shengjiong. The irony is that these were the five top earners on the team. Apparently Zhu saved the club 5,000,000 kuai with his antics. Reports linking this to the current gambling scandal are as yet unfounded.
ZZ WATCH: Zheng Zhi came on as a 79th minute sub for Celtic in their 3-0 win over Aberdeen. The goals were already scored by the time he go on the pitch.
Finally, China has a new football kit. It’s up there at the top of the page. No word on when the fakes hit Yashow.
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Talking Balls: Pork, Porking and Porkies
Sex scandal alert! Well, not really as it might be old news but one of the following links might not be suitable for work. Anyway, car model and blue (or yellow) movie star, Shou Shou is dating Team China basketball star Zhang Bo. Here are the pictures from Beijing Airport.
Judo star Tong Wen has been banned from competition for failing a drugs test. The reason that her coach has given for testing positive for Clenbuterol is "She trained in Europe and was sick of the food so we gave her a lot of pork chops when she came home." Sounds entirely plausible to me when you consider China's top backstroke swimmer Ouyang Kunpeng ‘s pre-Olympics life ban. He claimed that he had eaten too much barbecued roast pork with pals before the test.
Talking Balls: Brawling Ballers, Goal Grabbing Goalies and Talented Teenagers
The big sports story comes from the CBA. China’s Basketball Association is currently in the best-of-seven series finals. Guangdong Hongyuan took a 2-0 lead in the CBA final against Xinjiang Guanghui at home with a 85-80 win. Then things got interesting. Du Feng of Guangdong got into an altercation with Xinjiang’s Charles Gaines. The Guangdong player aimed a headbutt at Gaines and was swiftly dealt a blow to the temple. The punch knocked Du out. A Guangdong fan then tried to take on Gaines and general mayhem ensued while the stadium announcer appealed for calm. To see the fight click here, here or here. The CBA are set to fine both players.
Talking Balls: Frustrated Ding, Crazy Wei and Left-out Ross
Local hero Ding Junhui fell at the final hurdle in the 2010 Sanyuan Foods China Open. Mark Williams beat Ding 10-6 after coming from behind to win his first ranking title since 2006. The home crowd were understandably disappointed – their shouts of "Ding, kill him! Finish him!" had no effect on the outcome.
Talking Balls: Snooker Scalpings & Soccer Stars
Ticket touting has long been the scourge of sports in the West, and if you go further West you’d know it as scalping. Here in China it’s often to the benefit of fans. Take the example recorded by a Sina reporter yesterday at the Sanyuan Foods China Open (that’s snooker, by the way) and the bargains to be had. He was offered a ticket with a face value of RMB 200 for RMB 100 which is 50% off for starters but the seasoned spectator showed no interest. The tout’s response in the face of such indifference? “80? 50? 20? 10 kuai! You can’t go below that!”
The moral of the story is that those out to make a quick buck on the back of the interest of sports fans don’t always win. Actually, that’s too long. The moral is that you can save plenty of cash buying tickets on the street. We don’t encourage this though.
Talking Balls: Champs and Chumps
Beijing Guoan are playing their third game in the AFC Champions’ League tonight. Their opponents are Seongnam Ilhwa Chunma of Korea. Chances are that it will be as snowy an affair as their previous away game in Japan.
The CSL kicks off this weekend. Guoan start with a match against Nanchang Bayi on Saturday at 7.30pm. Apparently there will be an opening ceremony too.
Guoan have two home games in April. April 4 is the visit of Shenzhen Ruby and April 18 is Shaanxi Chanba. Tickets available at Workers' Stadium and 5905 9082.
