I take a bit of a backseat this time as Joseph Chin (not to be mistaken with Joseph Jireh) very helpfully did all of the heavy lifting for this article, and I am very grateful. I present to you his lowdown on Zhejiang Professional, and will then add on some of my thoughts and predictions at the end.
The Lowdown on Zhejiang Professional
The Name
What’s up with that name? Zhejiang Professional? Why does it sound so technical and boring?
No exciting explanation, really. They were actually made to rename (via government decree) from Hangzhou Greentown, hence the bland and rather unwieldy name Zhejiang Professional. You’ll notice that Guangzhou Evergrande is also not Guangzhou Evergrande anymore, they are just Guangzhou FC. Government did not want football clubs to have corporate names in their name.
Greentown is not a place, it is a company’s name. They are property developers, and remain owners of the club despite significant budget cuts.
The History
They were a yoyo-team whose 4th placed finish in 2010 remains a rare highlight of a generally mediocre track record until Jordi Vinyals, their current manager, took over.
Former players include
- former Kitchee manager Kim Dong-jin
- the popular Honduran Luis Ramirez (cult hero in China across clubs in the 2000s)
- former Brazilian international Argel Fuchs (who remains a punchline in English language football media) (hint – that’s not actually the way it was originally spelt)
- Lebanon legend Roda Antar
- Brazilian-Croatian striker Sammir
- former ACL winner Matthew Spiranovic
- Chinese Taipei captain Chen Po-liang (who we will see in the November National Team friendly)
- and the biggest name of them all, Tim Cahill of Australia and Everton.
Asian Pedigree
First appearing in 2011 ACL, Nagoya Grampus lost there to Hangzhou but their poor away form in Japan, Korea (against FC Seoul) and UAE (Al Ain) meant they ended in 4th place.
The next time they returned to the ACL was in 2023, after being relegated from CSL in 2016 and exiled there until 2022. The underdogs punched above their weight with home wins against Buriram United (that ended in an infamous brawl, more on that later) and Ventforet Kofu. Yet again their indifferent away form proved to be their undoing, though a creditable draw against Melbourne City was the reason why the Aussies couldn’t reach the next round.
The Man at the Helm
Jordi Vinyals. He is a former Barcelona B player, who also spent time with (then) lower division clubs Real Betis and Villarreal. Bounced around in the lower leagues in Spain as a manager until making his name in China with the now-defunct Qingdao Huanghai and then Zhejiang.
At least in China, his teams’ nearly 60% win rate in Qingdao and Hangzhou are based on a tendency to score a lot of goals and do things with a solid rather than spectacular squad with limited resources.
Some Dangermen to Look Out for
Leonardo: Thankfully he is not around to wreak havoc on our defence. The brawl against Buriram saw one of the main instigators of the fight hit with an 8-match ban, which means he can only be used domestically for this season. For the same reason, Yao Junsheng and Dong Yu are banned for the first few matches of ACL2 this season. Leonardo has 18 goals and 4 assists this season for Zhejiang, and is far and away their top-scorer.
Franko Andrijasevic: 3 caps for Croatia, will be pulling strings in the middle of the park together / alternating with Cheng Jin (whose appearance with the PRC NT last week was restricted to the bench)
Jean Evrard Kouassi: 9 caps for Ivory Coast, was on the longlist for the AFCON in 2023. Impressed with Hajduk Split and CSL rivals Shanghai Port and Wuhan Zall. Also had a forgettable dry spell in Turkey. Versatile across the frontline, one of the few world class players in the team and the main attacking threat. While he only has 5 goals this season, he leads the teams in assists, and is their biggest threat.
Alexander N’doumbou: AKA Qian Jiegei, the half-Chinese Gabonese midfielder once represented Gabon for 14 matches. Having renounced it for Chinese citizenship, he is out of international football but remains a key cog in his China career with Shanghai Shenhua and then Zhejiang given his European credentials.
Deabeas Owusu: Former Ajax youth player whose unusual route to China (via Estonia) helped somehow to revive a flagging career at 24 years old. Have to fill the big shoes of the suspended Leonardo and the prolific Zimbabwean striker Nyasha Mushkewi (who has left the club).
And that’s the Lowdown by Joseph Chin!
Sailors Need to Improve
After that pretty detailed breakdown by Joseph of our opponents tomorrow, I’ll now give you some of my thoughts.
I think this goes without saying, but we must do better than we did against Borneo. Till today I am not sure what that performance was – was it tactics? Tiredness? Bit of both?
We looked so passive, and so out of ideas, and we couldn’t string any passes together. It was a genuinely worrying performance, even taking the poorness of the pitch into account. There was a bit of a break after the 2-2 draw against Geylang International some weeks back, and I think and hope that the staff had time to figure out what the problem was.
Whether it’s been solved, we don’t know because we put out a very different lineup against Tanjong Pagar United. Coach Rankovic admitted after the game that it was due to rotation, so I don’t think any of us should expect to see the same lineup come tomorrow evening. As always, the proof is in the pudding, so let us all be judges of whether any improvement has been made. I hope that especially at home, we see our team go for it a bit more, and not be so tentative in attack.
Maxime had some big words to say in the official club interview, let’s hope the team backs it up with some good play on the pitch.
Zhejiang Not In the Best Shape
It won’t have escaped notice that even though some might say that recent Sailors form has been unconvincing, Zhejiang’s is even worse.
They have lost more than half their games, have a negative goal difference, and their 50 goals conceded is the 2nd-worst defensive record in the entire league. Their form in the past 2 mths? 4 losses, 1 draw, and 1 win.
If there’s ever an ideal time to play Zhejiang, it is now. Especially without their star striker. Team playing in green, bad form, poor defence? Shades of Jeonbuk maybe?
Conclusion
Something tells me we’re gonna win. Maybe it’s just bias. Whatever it is, let’s get on out there and make the rest of Singapore proud, whether you are a player or a fan. “Champions in Blue” will be making its debut tomorrow, let’s make it a memorable debut.
COME ON YOU BOYS IN BLUE!
My predicted line-up
Izwan Mahbud
Lionel Tan, Bailey Wright, Toni Datkovic, Obren Kljajic
Rui Pires, Bart Ramselaar, Hami Syahin
Maxime Lestienne, Lennart Thy, Shawal Anuar
Score Prediction
Joseph and I predict the scores and track our success in a table. Stay tuned to find out who is the prediction king!
3 points for exact scoreline predicted correctly, 2 points for predicting the winner and margin of victory correctly (but not the exact scoreline), and 1 point for predicting the outcome correctly (win, lose or draw).
Eddy’s prediction: Sailors 3 Zhejiang 2
Joseph’s prediction: Sailors 1 Zhejiang 0
Written by Joseph Chin and Eddy Hirono
Edited by Eddy Hirono
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