After the game, he chased Wu Lei for a photo. Malaysian new stars dominated the game. The Harbour team failed to beat Johor Bahru in their AFC Champions League debut.
Although they failed to continue the winning streak of Shandong Taishan and Shanghai Shenhua, Shanghai Haigang at least managed to maintain their unbeaten record in the first round of the Chinese Super League with a tough draw. On September 18, in the first round of the newly reformed Asian Champions League, Shanghai Haigang, the champion of the 2023 Chinese Super League, was tied 2-2 by the Malaysian League champion Johor Bahru.
The Harbour team ended in a draw in their debut in the AFC Champions League.
An interesting scene occurred after the game: Arif Aiman, who helped the visiting team score twice, turned out to be a fan of Haigang team's star player Wu Lei. After the game, he specially came to the home team's locker room, found Wu Lei, exchanged jerseys and took photos together.
No longer limit the number of foreign players, the new AFC Champions League policy changes the Asian landscape
The newly reformed AFC Champions League in the 2024-2025 season has a revolutionary measure, which is to remove the limit on the number of foreign players. In other words, as long as the club has money and the investors are willing, a team from a country or region can completely rely on "mercenaries" to build a giant team, even if the team does not have a single player from the country or region. The new foreign aid policy of the AFC Champions League actually brings severe challenges to the Chinese Super League clubs that still implement the policy of a maximum of five foreign players.
This was the AFC Champions League Elite Tournament draw ceremony filmed on August 16.
On the same day, the draw ceremony for the 2024-2025 AFC Champions League group stage was held in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia.
In order to enhance the viewing and competitiveness of the AFC Champions League, the AFC has clearly stipulated that teams participating in the AFC Champions League can arrange for foreign players to appear on the field without any restrictions on the number of players. To some extent, this is actually a policy tailored for the West Asian giants: Take the West Asian giant Riyadh Victory as an example. The team has superstars such as Cristiano Ronaldo and its strength is already unrivaled in Asia. However, after the team failed to win the AFC Champions League last season, the Saudi League simply continued to relax the number of foreign players, increasing it from 8 to 10.
In addition, the tournament system after the Asian Champions League enters the top 16 will also be held in Saudi Arabia. Obviously, under the dual support of the AFC Champions League's policy of not limiting the number of foreign players and the future home game, West Asian clubs represented by Riyadh Victory are eyeing the first AFC Elite League.
On January 3, 2023, Cristiano Ronaldo and his family were at the welcome ceremony.
On the same day, Saudi Arabia's Riyadh Victory Club held a welcoming event for Ronaldo.
The new AFC foreign aid policy has also completely changed the original pattern of Asian elite clubs. In the first round of the qualifying round, Dubai Youth of the United Arab Emirates used 11 foreign players in one game, of which 7 were in the starting lineup. Nowadays, the West Asian league, which is dominated by money-driven football, is very supportive of relaxing restrictions on foreign players, and they also have the capital to introduce good foreign players at high prices. In the match between Haigang and Johor Bahru on the 18th, Haigang also specially introduced the sixth foreign aid Pope. All six foreign players started, which is one more foreign aid quota than the Chinese Super League.
Johor Bahru, playing away, is a giant team in the Malaysian league. It has not lost for nearly three years. It won the championship last season and scored 100 goals and conceded only 7 goals. Facing the Harbour, there were as many as 9 foreign players in the 11 starting players of Johor Bahru, and 4 foreign players served as substitutes, which shows the depth of the team's bench. In the game, the foreign players of Johor Bahru cooperated skillfully and had delicate skills. In particular, they were very experienced in the game. After the lead was tied twice, the players suffered cramps and injuries one after another. They used their experience to successfully split the game into pieces and finally maintained a draw.
Malaysia's popular young actor is actually a super fan of Wu Lei
Although Johor Bahru relied on foreign players to support the team, the best performing away player in this game was the 22-year-old Malaysian international Arif Aiman. It was his two goals that helped Johor Bahru take the lead twice and finally get a draw. He is one of the few pure Malaysians in the Johor team with many foreign players and mixed-race players. In addition, although he is only 22 years old, Arif is already a main player of the Malaysian national team. After the game, he took the initiative to find Wu Lei to take a photo and exchange jerseys, which made players from different countries appreciate each other and convey friendship, becoming a good story.
In this match, 9 out of 11 players in Johor's starting lineup were foreign players. The only two Malaysian players were 38-year-old veteran Insa and 22-year-old Arif. Insa was born in Spain and made his debut in Valencia's youth training. He is a naturalized international player of Malaysia. In other words, the only "pure Malay international player" in Johor's lineup was Arif. Unexpectedly, the one who ultimately controlled the trend of the Johor Bahru match was not the foreign player who looked like a foreigner, but Arif, who looked like a typical Malaysian.
In the first half, the Harbour team played at a slower pace, while the Johor Bahru team relied on defensive counterattacks. Before the end of the first half, Arif cut inside in a counterattack and shot from a long distance with his left foot. The ball went directly into the dead corner. This was an unsolvable world wave. Not long after the start of the second half, the defense of the Harbour team, which had just equalized the score, was lost again. It was Arif who dribbled past Wei Zhen on the right and shot diagonally with his left foot, surpassing the score again. It is reported that Arif is currently worth 550,000 euros, which is enough to be an absolute main force in the Chinese Super League. He is also the Malaysian Footballer of the Year, the Best Forward of the Year, the Best Rookie of the Year in 2021 and 2022, and the Golden Boot winner of the Malaysian FA Cup in the 2023 season. At the Asian Cup earlier this year, he scored a goal in the 3-3 tie between the Malaysian team and the South Korean team, and is one of the most promising stars in Southeast Asia.
In addition, Arif is actually a fan of Shanghai Harbour star Wu Lei. After the game, he came to the door of the home team's locker room, found Wu Lei to exchange jerseys and take photos. Shanghai Harbour team press officer Zhao Haochen revealed: "Arif, the No. 42 player who scored two goals for Johor, came to the door of the home team's locker room after the game and said that he is a fan of Wu Lei and likes Wu Lei very much. He hopes to exchange jerseys and take photos."
In the end, Wu Lei also happily took a photo with Arif. In my opinion, after helping the Haigang team win the Chinese Super League championship in the 2028 season, Wu Lei went to La Liga to study abroad. He is the only Chinese player who plays in the top five leagues. During that time, he had a wonderful performance in the Spanish team. Or it may be that Wu Lei's highlight moment in La Liga, especially breaking the Barcelona goal, impressed Arif, who is also an Asian player, and became a fan. It is worth mentioning that the group photo shows that Wu Lei has a thick ice pack tied to his knee. It is obvious that this old injury still affects his performance.
The head coach competition ended in a draw, and the integration of new players exceeded expectations
This summer, Shanghai Harbour Club loaned Brazilian striker Pope from the Thai Super League. In the first round of the AFC Champions League, Pope made his debut and showed his value. One shot created chaos and basically assisted his teammates to score. Another wonderful volley in front of the goal. Pope was directly involved in two goals, helping the poorly-formed Shanghai Harbour team to escape unscathed. With Wu Lei injured, the club fighting on three fronts, and the Chinese national team fighting in the top 18 of the World Cup qualifiers, Pope, who can only play in the AFC Champions League and miss the Chinese Super League, can at least share the pressure for the whole team on the offensive end.
Due to the lack of victory, the players of Haigang were somewhat less passionate when interacting with the home fans after the game. Even though he scored a goal in his debut, foreign aid Pope still did not smile. Before the game, Haigang coach Muscat was also full of expectations for him. He spoke highly of the new foreign aid in a recent communication with Shanghai media. "Pope has a good character and personality. He quickly integrated into the team. His work attitude and technical ability were recognized by his teammates. His joining will provide us with more options in the intensive schedule. Before joining Haigang, I had been observing him for three or four years. He has a high basketball IQ. He can not only create opportunities for himself, but also create opportunities for his teammates. I hope he can help the team achieve good results in the upcoming AFC Champions League."
This match was also a battle of tactics between the two head coaches, and in the end, the two sides were tied. The Harbour team fell behind twice and equalized twice, while the Johor Bahru team led twice but failed to win. Both teams showed their own technical and tactical characteristics. Especially the Johor Bahru team, the technical and tactical style is very sophisticated, almost no mistakes in the whole game, and at the same time, it is very experienced in the game, and almost every detail is just right. Of course, if there are some flaws, it is that the defense of this team is not very tight, at least the Harbour team found a flaw in the set-piece defense.
Harbour head coach Muscat was satisfied with the team's performance.
The Haigang Club held a 500th memorial ceremony for players Wang Shenchao and Lv Wenjun.
After the game, Muscat said he was very satisfied with the game. "We fell behind twice in the game and needed to catch up. In the end, the team worked hard to get a draw." He also analyzed that the team played a little anxiously. "We may lack patience on the offensive end. We seemed a little anxious in the last pass in the first half. We improved in the second half. We started the AFC Champions League with 1 point. Next, we will continue to look forward and prepare for the next round of games."
As the second round will be played against Shanghai Shenhua at Johor home, Shenhua coach Slutsky was also watching the game. Johor Bahru head coach Bidolio said: "Both sides performed very well today, and Shanghai Harbour put a lot of pressure on Johor. Every game is very difficult, but we are a big club, and our focus is on ourselves, and the first thing we focus on is our own performance."
