By Kokoy Severino
Group G: Kaya-Iloilo FC (Philippines) vs Shandong
Taishan FC (China)
Kickoff time: 8:00 pm, Tuesday September 19 at Rizal Memorial Stadium, Manila
More than
half the AFC Champions League tournaments held since it was rebranded in 2002
have featured Shandong Taishan, the first opponents of Kaya-Iloilo FC, the
Philippine representatives in Asia’s premiere continental club competition. The
second-most dominant club in China’s pro ball system, this is Shandong
Taishan’s 11th appearance in the AFC Champions League.
Shandong
have won the Chinese Super League title four times. They were the last team to
have won the CSL before Guangzhou Evergrande started their outrageous
seven-season streak of championships from 2011 until the financial crash of
2017. Up until that point, Shandong had the most top two finishes since the
CSL’s inception in 2004. In China’s FA Cup competition, Shandong hold the
records for most final appearances with 13 and most championships with eight. The
northeast China club qualified for the 2023 AFC Champions League two different
ways – by winning the 2022 FA Cup, for the third year in a row, and by
finishing as Super League runners-up.
Despite
their domestic success, Shandong have underachieved at the continental level.
Over their previous ten qualifications, the Tai Mountain comrades have posted a
record of 27 wins, 15 draws and 27 defeats on their way to one quarter-final berth,
the deepest they have ever reached in the tournament. Shandong are definitely looking to improve
on their 2022 performance when they posted their worst Champions League results
ever, fielding a roster depleted by Coronavirus restrictions – zero wins, one
draw and five losses, scoring only two goals and conceding 19. And this was after
qualifying for the ACL by winning their domestic double, finishing as champions
of both the Chinese Super League and the FA Cup. To bounce back from such an
atrocious performance, we can be quite certain that when Shandong hit the artificial
Rizal Memorial Stadium turf on September 19 to open the 2023 campaign, they will
be in full attack formation, intent upon piling on the goals and showing no
mercy.
Leading the Shandong attack is their most
globally recognizable player, former Belgian international Marouane Fellaini. Sporting
his signature ethnic Moroccan afro, Fellaini spent 12 seasons in the English
Premiere League, making a combined 354 appearances for Everton first and then
Manchester United where he won a handful of trophies. He was instrumental in Belgium’s 2014 and 2018 World Cup campaigns, reaching the knockout
rounds in both and finishing third in Russia. After the 2018 World Cup, he retired
from national team duty, cut his hair, and signed a multi-year contract with
Shandong, well away from the pressure and scrutiny drawn to the center of
Manchester United, one of the world’s most storied football organizations.
Fellaini made himself at home in the midfield of the perennial Chinese Super
League contender, helping Shandong get to the ACL round of 16 in his first
season, and going on to tally 44 goals in 124 appearances for three domestic
trophies.
Now 35 years
old, the Belgian legend has just announced his plan to leave Shandong at the
end of the current season. In the same announcement, Fellaini expressed his
full intent to give everything he can to win as many trophies as possible in
his last run, which would undoubtedly increase his one-million Euro transfer
price tag. His 10 domestic goals this season are proof enough that he means business
as the first AFC Champions League match date approaches.
But Fellaini
is not the only scoring threat Kaya-Iloilo need to closely mark.
After three
years with Portuguese side Santa Clara, Brazilian striker Crysan joined Shandong
at the beginning of the 2022 Super League season and went on a rampage. In his
first season in China, Crysan hit the net 25 times in just 32 matches, the
second-highest individual total in the league. It appears his momentum has carried
into the 2023 season, chalking up a club-leading 11 goals in 18 appearances.
His current figures are not quite on par with last season, leading one to
believe he will land in Rizal Memorial particularly hungry for goal.
The same
year that Fellaini arrived in northeast China, fellow midfielder Moises signed
on after four seasons with Palmeiras, with whom he had twice won the Brazilian Campeonato Brasileiro Série A. Prior to that,
Moises earned some silverware in the Croatian top flight with Rijeka. Together,
the two veterans have combined for 62 goals at Shandong. Moises’ most dangerous
quality however is his midfield creativity, finishing the 2022 campaign with
the highest assist total in the league, and continues to lead the club with
eight in the current season.
Defensively,
Shandong are anchored by veteran China international goalkeeper Wang Da Lei,
who has posted some impressive numbers in league play. Conceding only 21 goals
in 24 matches for a <1 average, Wang has recorded nine clean sheets, helping
Shandong maintain the second-best goal differential in the league and the
fewest goals against. Wang may look familiar to some Azkals followers, as he
presided over the 8-1 thumping of the Philippines by China in a 2017 friendly.
Of course, Wang must give credit to his defensive unit, which packs a ton of international experience, fielding five national team players in their back rotation. Those same five defenders have logged over at least 1000 minutes each in AFC Champions League pitch time. Lead by veteran center-back Shi Ke who has seen action in 36 ACL matches for over 3000 minutes, and left-back Zheng Zheng with 34 appearances and more than 2800 minutes. Despite these numbers, Shandong Taishan have struggled to replicate their Super League performance in the Champions League.
With Fellaini’s impending departure, and over a
third of their entire lineup past 30 years old, 2023 will be Shandong’s last
crack at making it past the ACL quarter-finals before having to reconfigure
their midfield. With a few formidable obstacles in the road out of Group G, it
will be tough going for Fellaini and company though, with or without his afro.
Just because
Kaya-Iloilo don’t have the star-studded lineup of their opening Champions
League opponent doesn’t mean they can’t make a game of it. From what I have
seen, the most important quality going for Philippine football is a drive and
conviction to persevere against all odds. It’s that drive that keeps us on the
road towards progress and improvement, a road we have been on steadily and
visibly.
Kaya is one
of the most successful professional football outfits in the Philippines. The organization
sprouted up in the 1980’s from a group of players who gathered regularly for
pickup games on the grounds of a prestigious international school in the
capital. By the mid-1990’s the community was ready to formalize this gathering
into a full-fledged competitive team, and entered the various competitions in
existence at the time in an economically underdeveloped country where soccer
had taken a backseat to basketball, boxing, and cock-fighting as the main commercial
spectator sport endeavors. The late Rudy del Rosario, former Philippine
National Team Captain and one of the club founders, cited Bob Marley and the
Wailers’ song “Kaya” as the inspiration for its name.
In 2010,
Kaya became one of the original teams in the inaugural United Football League, established
as the country’s top flight until it folded at the end of the 2016 campaign. In
the seven seasons the UFL operated, Kaya twice finished as runners-up and came
in third once. Where the UFL left off, the Philippine Football League took
over, and Kaya’s run continued, taking second in the table for three successive
seasons until this last one when they finished as champions.
In the Copa
Paulino Alcantara, Kaya is the only club to have played in every final since
its inauguration in 2018, bagging the trophy outright twice. At the moment, Kaya
are on track for another serious challenge to recapture the CPA trophy, undefeated
after four matches, bulldozing through their group with a 35-1 goal
differential that will likely grow in the remaining ties. Kaya is more than a worthy
Philippine representative in Asia’s most prestigious continental club
competition, and one of very few teams in the country I would put up against the likes of
Fellaini, Moises, Crysan, and Wang.
Newly
appointed Head Coach Colum Curtis is looking to continue his successful run in
Southeast Asia. After guiding Svay Rieng to the 2019 Cambodian league championship as an assistant, Curtis took over at Visakha FC who lifted the Hun Sen
Cup for the first time in club history. Now at Kaya-Iloilo, the former Northern
Ireland youth international is seeing his third club in the Asian continental competition
system. He inherits a squad of top domestic pedigree, many of whom are at the
peak of their respective careers.
If Kaya have
an answer to Moises, he would have to be offensive juggernaut Daizo Horikoshi,
whose 21 goals and 20 assists last season were key to the club’s first
Philippine Football League championship. The Japanese striker and playmaker
will have to be at his creative best to crack Shandong’s experienced defensive
line. Horikoshi transferred to Kaya in 2019 after a season with Albirex
Niigata’s Singapore League franchise. He clearly found his form last year
earning him the Golden Ball award in the League and the Golden Boot in
both the League and the Copa. At just 26 years old, Horikoshi still has a
number of years left at his peak. It would be good for the Philippine club
system if he stays a while.
Also approaching
the peak of his career is 26-year-old winger Jarvey Gayoso, who has scored 16
goals in 32 total appearances for Kaya since 2022. Back in college, Gayoso tore
up nets in the University Athletic Association of the Philippines, scoring 50 times
as an Ateneo de Manila varsity forward from 2015 to 2019, foreshadowing a
promising pro future. In the current Copa tournament, he has averaged one goal
per appearance. With 12 national caps, Gayoso is currently the most expensive
product of the Philippine development system playing domestically who is still
in his 20’s, valued on the market at €150K.
Kaya’s
defensive line will have to stay particularly disciplined and organized against
Shandong. This is where guys like Akito Saito and Audie Menzi will be critical
in disrupting Crysan’s drives. Each still in his mid-20’s, Kaya will count on
their speed and quickness to get back in a hurry in transition from an
offensive shape. Just acquired in August from Aizawl in India’s top flight,
Saito is a youthful addition to Kaya’s defensive ranks. Benguet-born Audie
Menzi was already logging minutes for Kaya during the UFL days while still at
Far Eastern University, where he won a national collegiate title in 2015. Now
at 28, Menzi has already seen two AFC Champions League campaigns with Kaya,
scoring the winning goal in a play-in match against Shanghai Port in 2021. The
Filipino international’s experience will go a long way in settling down and
digging in Kaya’s defense.
Senegalese
forward Abou Sy transferred from Stallion Laguna in August and made an
immediate impact, tallying six goals and three assists in four Copa matches
thus far. When observed from the stands, Abou Sy is the hardest working player
on the pitch, all over the forward and middle thirds for Kaya. At 27 years old,
Abou Sy displays the combination of physicality, work rate, intelligence,
athleticism and talent necessary to harass Fellaini enough to neutralize him in
the middle of the park, and spark Kaya’s quick-counter transitions, which is pretty
much the bread and butter of every club in the Philippines’ top tier and below.
And that is the
stage Philippine clubs are at right now in their evolutionary strategic development. Kaya is
great at full-on transition surges once possession is gained. The disadvantage of
this is it is impossible to sustain that kind of offensive pace for 45 straight
minutes without slowing down at about the 25-minute mark. At that slower pace
is when teams need to maintain longer possession of the ball, establish a
rhythm, and conserve energy. Philippine clubs, even the best of them, are still
not yet accustomed to making the necessary adjustments to play a more
possession-oriented game. Even at that slower pace, teams in the Copa are
still implementing a constant fast-break offense.
Against a
team such as Shandong, Kaya may have to apply an Italy-style strategy, allowing
the opposition to possess the ball while they keep their defensive shape compact
and solid, patiently looking for the slightest turnover opportunity. In being
more energy-efficient, Abou Sy, Horikoshi, Gayoso, Menzi and company can burst
out upon recovery of the ball and go full speed on the break, which is what
they do best, and do it effectively even late into the half.
In what
would seem counter to one’s intuition, the Iloilo club’s thorough dominance in
the tournament named after their province’s most beloved football hero may
actually work against them in the AFC Champions League. With a +34 goal surplus
in just four matches, the narrowest margin being a 7-0 perforation of Loyola,
Kaya’s Copa Paulino Alcantara opponents are not helping much in their
preparation against more competitive sides at the continental level. By
contrast, Shandong’s last four games as of this writing also sees them
undefeated, but by significantly tighter margins, including an FA Cup
quarter-final win in penalties over Beijing Guoan.
But then
again, the comparatively lighter schedule may also work in Kaya’s favor,
allowing them to save their much-needed energy for their big league matches
coming up. In that regard, let’s hope Qingdao Hainiu gave Shandong a harder
game than last night's 2-4 result might indicate in the Tai Mountainmen’s final Chinese
Super League tie before crossing the West Philippine Sea.
A win over
Shandong would make two in a row against international opposition by a
Philippine squad, something rarely seen at Rizal Memorial since the mid-20th
century. That would be uniquely special not only for the five Kaya-Iloilo
players in Coach Michael Weiss’s national selection that claimed an historic victory
against Afghanistan on September 12, but especially for the raucous festive
home crowd, of which I will be one.
Kokoy Severino is a
career educator, nationally certified youth soccer coach in the United States,
and an executive officer of the Football for Peace Movement in the Philippines…
Kaya-Iloilo
FC match schedule in the AFC Champions League Group G
(all kickoff times local at venue):
September
19 – vs Shandong Taishan @ Rizal Memorial Stadium, Manila 8:00 pm
October
3 – vs Incheon United @ Incheon Football Stadium, Incheon, South Korea 7:00 pm
October
25 – vs Yokohama FM @ Yokohama International Stadium, Yokohama, Japan 7:00 pm
November
7 – vs Yokohama FM @ Rizal Memorial Stadium, Manila 8:00 pm
November
28 – vs Shandong Taishan @ Jinan Olympic Stadium, Jinan, China 8:00 pm
December
13 – vs Incheon United @ Rizal Memorial Stadium, Manila 4:00 pm
Other
Philippine clubs in Asian continental competition:
Dynamic
Herb Cebu FC match schedule in the AFC Cup Group F
September
21 – vs Phnom Penh Crown @ Rizal Memorial Stadium, Manila 8:00 pm
October
5 – vs Macarthur @ Campbelltown Sports Stadium, Sydney, Australia 7:00 pm
October
26 – vs Shan United @ Rizal Memorial Stadium, Manila 8:00 pm
November
9 – vs Shan United @ Thuwunna Stadium, Yangon, Myanmar 6:30 pm
November
30 – vs Phnom Penh Crown @ Smart RSN Stadium, Phnom Penh, Cambodia 7:00 pm
December
14 – vs Macarthur @ Rizal Memorial Stadium, Manila 8:00 pm
Stallion
Laguna FC match schedule in the AFC Cup Group G
September
20 – vs Bali United @ Biñan Football Stadium, Biñan, Laguna 4:00 pm
October
4 – vs Central Coast Mariners @ Industree Group Stadium, Gosford, Queensland, Australia
7:00 pm
October
26 – vs Terengganu FC @ Sultan Mizan Zainal Abidin Stadium, Kuala Terengganu,
Malaysia 8:00 pm
November
8 – vs Terengganu FC @ Biñan Football Stadium, Biñan, Laguna 4:00 pm
November
29 – vs Bali United @ Captain 1 Wayan Dipta Stadium, Bali, Indonesia 8:00 pm
December
13 – vs Central Coast Mariners @ Biñan Football Stadium, Biñan, Laguna 4:00 pm
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