Chengdu Rongcheng, a Chinese Super 스포츠토토 League club led by coach Seo Jeong-won, is preparing for the final season in Korea. Coach Seo plans to hold a series of sparring matches with K-League teams in Korea to maximize the players’ sense of actual combat.
Chengdu, led by coach Seo, entered Korea on the 13th and set up a base camp in Suwon, Gyeonggi-do, and began field training in Korea. The 2023 season of the Chinese Super League, which Chengdu belongs to, is scheduled to kick off on April 15th. Chengdu, which was promoted to the Chinese Super League last year and quickly jumped to 5th place, showing the appearance of an emerging powerhouse, this season is even looking to advance to the AFC Champions League.
Naturally, the power reinforcement for the new season has been done quite well. Chengdu, which has been using proven players in the K-League for the past several years as foreign resources, has strengthened its foreign lineup this year by calling in Manuel Palacios, who played for Seongnam FC until last year. Even Elkeson, who was naturalized as a Chinese national team member and drew great attention from Korean fans, is now attracting extraordinary attention in China.
Coach Seo is accompanying more than 50 players and staff in this training session in Korea. If you look at Chengdu’s training schedule, you can see that it is thoroughly focused on improving the sense of practice. On the 14th, Chengdu already played its first Korean training match against Ansan Greeners at the Ansan Wa~ Stadium auxiliary ground.
Then on the 15th, Cheonan FC, Seoul E-Land on the 17th, Seoul E-Land on the 22nd, FC Seoul on the 25th, and Suwon Samsung on the 29th. It is impressive to see the K-League teams actively helping coach Suh, even though sparring partners cannot compete with their full potential due to the conditions of the K-League, which is currently in the middle of the season.
Ansan Greeners coach Lim Jong-heon, who had an evaluation match with Chengdu on the 14th, said to <Best Eleven>, “In normal times, we have to check the talents of the players in the 2nd team,” but also added, “The Korean coach is working as a coach in China, a foreign country, and we can help with that much. “I also experienced leadership in China. I have to think about Seo’s prestige.”
Chengdu is a team with proven resources in the K-League (Kim Min-woo, Felipe, Homulo, Richard, Palacios) and Chinese prospects who have been painstakingly nurtured by the team. In the evaluation match against Ansan, it was impressive to see players who are familiar with K-League players actively lead the team. In particular, Homulo, who had already spent two seasons in China, made people around him laugh by showing his ability to speak Korean, which was his main skill during his K League days. Homulo, who played as a two-top striker with Elkeson, was once caught offside when penetrating from behind, but he protested to the assistant referee, “There was (Ansan player) over there,” and made people laugh.
Chengdu plans to set up a schedule to observe K-League matches in person, as well as six friendly matches with K-League teams. According to the explanation of the official, Hana One Q K League 1 2023 4th round Suwon Samsung and Hana Citizen will watch the match at Suwon World Cup Stadium on the 19th. This day is a holiday according to the team schedule, so there is no problem enjoying the K-League. Chengdu’s Korean training, which tries to learn and feel the K-League with its own eyes even in a difficult situation due to the tight training schedule, seems very informative.