The Chinese League One campaign is now well underway where there has been great action. Today we will be looking a few of the league’s sides and their starts to the campaign.
But first let’s have a look at the league table (numbers to the right are the points of the team mentioned next to them. Also, all teams have now played five fixtures, so no need to add that either.)
1.) Wuhan Zall, 12
2.) Beijing Enterprises Group, 12
3.) Shijiazhuang Ever Bright, 11
4.) Qingdao Huanghai, 11
5.) Yanbian Funde, 10
6.) Meizhou Hakka, 10
7.) Zhejiang Greentown, 9
8.) Shanghai Shenxin, 6
9.) FC Liaoning, 6
10.) Meizhou Meixian Techand, 5
11.) Shenzhen FC, 5
12.) Zhejiang Yiteng, 5
13.) Heilongjiang Lava Spring, 4
14.) Nei Mongol Zhongyou, 3
15.) Xinjiang Tianshan Leopard, 2
16.) Dalian Transcendence, 0
Wuhan Zall:
What better place to start than with league leaders Wuhan Zall.
Wuhan were able to take twelve points from a possible fifteen, winning four out of five. They have looked great in every game they have won, with a standout performance against FC Liaoning, winning 4-0.
Sandwiched between two sets of two wins in a row was an unnatural defeat to Heilongjiang Lava Spring, funnily enough being Lava Spring’s one and only win so far, ending 1-0.
The Brazilian Rafael Silva has been the man making things tick by scoring six goals, the leading goalscorer in the league.
Their next league game is against joint leaders and fellow standouts, who we’ll get to soon, Beijing Enterprises.
Beijing Enterprises:
As previously stated, the Enterprises are joint leaders with Wuhan Zall.
With just as an impressive start, they’ve won four out of five, their one defeat coming at the hands of FC Liaoning, ending 1-0. Similarly to Wuhan having two sets of two wins with the one defeat in the middle.
Their Nigerian nightmare, Dominic Vinicius, is the leading scorer for them, popping up with three goals at the moment.
They’ll be hoping that home advantage makes the difference when they face Wuhan on Sunday.
Dalian Transcendence:
At the complete opposite end of the table, losing each and every one of their fixtures are Dalian Transcendence.
Conceding thirteen goals in five games, they clearly don’t have much of a defence. Their attack hasn’t been much better either, scoring only three goals.
There must be something in the water in Dalian where, as shown above, the Transcendence have shown similar form to Dalian’s Super League side Yifang.
Transcendence will be hoping to improve their non-existent form this Sunday when they face Meizhou Hakka.
Yanbian Funde:
After relegation last season Yanbian Funde will have wanted to make an impact.
Yabian are currently on ten points and have the best defensive record in the league, keeping four clean sheets out of five.
They like the score 1-0 too with all three victories and their one defeat ending that way.
A steady start for Yanbian who without doubt will be looking to go straight back up to the CSL.
They face Zhejiang Yiteng on Sunday.
That’s it for this edition of ‘CL1 Watch’, where next time we look it’ll be ten games into the campaign.