Chinese football fans would not have predicted that the China League One minnows Sichuan Jiuniu would be giants killers in this season’s Chinese FA Cup, as the team eye the semifinals.
The Sichuan team, who are the only reaming League One (second tier) side in the final eight of the FA Cup, will take on Henan Jianye in their second-leg quarterfinal after the minnows tied Chinese Super League (CSL) side Henan Songshan Longmen 1-1.
“We have faced a lot of difficulties this season,” said Li Yi, a former China international who now is the head coach of Jiuniu. “Though our team is not fully prepared and sometimes shorthanded, we have to take every games seriously and leave the pitch without any regrets.”
If Thursday’s game result proves to be what Jiuniu is expecting, it will be a history making moment for the team as they qualify for the semifinals for the first time in the club’s history.
“As there remains the chances, we are giving what it takes. We are not just here to be tourists,” Li told reporters as his team is preparing the second-leg game in Dalian, Northeast China’s Liaoning Province. “Every progressive step we take will create history.”
The Chinese FA Cup, celebrating its 65th anniversary this year, are playing in capacity restricted stadiums as the Chinese football governing body maintains strict COVID-19 preventional measures.
Jiuniu were the quarterfinalists in 2018, when the team was in China’s third-tier football league. The team originally remained in the third-tier league in 2020 until several China League One teams fell out of the top flight due to bankruptacy.
Li, who took reins of the team only last year, said his team has improved a lot since finding themselves in League One.
“When I took over of the team, most of the players have never experienced League One, let alone the CSL,” Li said.
“But after a few years playing together, they proved that they are capable of handling stronger teams though sometimes they play without enough confidence.
“The most gratifying thing for a coach is to see your players are growing.”
Jiuniu sparked the biggest shock in this year’s cup competition with their first-round knockout of CSL giants Beijing Guoan, a team Li once played for.
“Uncertainty is sometimes the glamour of football,” Li said. “As the FA Cup is open to grass-roots and non-professional teams, I think one-game decider in the future knockout stage will lead to more stunners and upsets.”
The Chinese FA Cup is holding a single-game decider before entering quarterfinals, which many believe will limit the chances of a “dark horse” making in through.
But making the quarterfinals doesn’t represent the high watermark for a Southwestern Chinese team. The best performance for a Sichuan team was back in 2004 season, when then-named Sichuan Guancheng came in as runners-up in the Chinese FA Cup.
Once considered the title contenders, that Sichuan team were later beleaguered by a financial crisis which ultimatedly ended with the removal of the once-famed Sichuan team until a newly established Sichuan team re-emerged from the bottom league in 2017.
Recent years have also witnessed a wave of Chinese football clubs quitting due to insufficient finances, and Li called for investors to be rational when it came to sinking money into football.
“There were bubbles on football in previous years and generally things are getting rational,” Li said. “I hope the football clubs in China could quickly find a balance and then profit through operation [rather than relying heavily on investments].”
