It is certainly a joy to be able to win the first Chinese Super League game in the club's history.

But the Twinkles have already put behind them a win that was enough to keep fans happy for a week.

The fans don't have to think too much about it, they just have to enjoy the game.

If you win, you are happy, and if you lose, you will scold.

But not the players and coaches.

Just after playing the game with Yunyang Phoenix, the shining stars entered the AFC Champions League preparation mode.

As the champions of the Chinese Football Association Cup last season, they qualified directly for the AFC Champions League, instead of having to play a qualifying round like the third runner-up in the Chinese Super League.

In the AFC Champions League group stage group draw ceremony, the shining stars who participated in the AFC Champions League for the first time were drawn into a group that could not be counted.

Because of the size of Asia and the fact that the Australian and New Zealand Football Associations have joined the AFC, the AFC Champions League teams often face the embarrassing situation of flying almost a third of the way around the globe to play an away game.

It's no different from a Western European team going to Vladivostok to play away in the Europa League – but that hasn't happened yet, because Vladivostok's team hasn't played in the Europa League at all.

But in Asia, a similar situation is real, and if a West Asian team goes to Australia to play the AFC Champions League, the flight distance is not close at all.

In order to solve this problem of increasing the burden on the team, the AFC divided the AFC Champions League into two halves, east and west.

The western half is made up of clubs from West, Central and South Asia. All teams in this zone are automatically placed in the West Zone and are drawn together in the group draw.

The East Division, on the other hand, is made up of teams from East Asia, Southeast Asia, Australia and New Zealand, who are battling each other.

Until the final, the teams in the eastern and western halves will never meet.

It's a bit like the NBA's format, where the Eastern and Western divisions decide their respective champions, and the Eastern and Western champions finally come together to determine the entire Asian champion.

As long as they can win their respective semi-divisions, they will qualify for the Club World Cup.

It's not like before, you have to be the overall champion to go to the Club World Cup.

The AFC learned from UEFA, and also started European points - in the AFC, it is called Asian points.

The ranking of the participating teams is determined based on the points, so as to facilitate the draw of lots.

Because the flashes never had Asian points, they were naturally placed in the lowest bracket and became the fourth bracket team.

This grade is very bad for the shining star, and it is easy to get in the company of a group of strong teams.

So this time they were placed in Group H, alongside teams from South Korea, Japan and Australia.

They are Seoul LG, the third runner-up of the South Korean K1 League last season, the runner-up of the Japanese J1 League last season, Victory Osaka, and the runner-up of the Australian Super League last season, Sydney Coast.

Not only is the opponent strong, but also facing the hardship of traveling to Australia to compete.

As the first time to participate in the AFC Champions League, many people are not optimistic about their prospects in the AFC Champions League, and some people are even worried that after the AFC Champions League plays, it will affect their performance in the league and lead to the team's eventual relegation - this is definitely not a deliberate look down on the flashstar, but there are many lessons from the past.

This is not uncommon in European football, where football is more professional.

There are some teams that were originally in the middle and lower ranks, but after hard work and a little luck, they finally made it to next season's European competition.

At the end of the season, the fans were still vividly celebrating this great achievement.

In the new season, the team's performance plummeted, and in the end, there was no outstanding performance in Europe, and it also disrupted the rhythm of the league, resulting in the team finishing bottom of the league.

Those teams with some strength can still go all out in the league after being eliminated from the European competition, and finally succeed in relegation.

And some teams can't stop the downward trend ꓹ at the end of the season ꓹ Fall into the second division.

A stadium that was full of joy a season ago becomes like a morgue at this time.

The twinkling star finally got promoted to the Chinese Super League ꓹ Just let the Anton fans taste a little sweetness, and everyone doesn't want them to return to the Chinese league after only one season.

If you have a choice, I'm afraid that many flashstar fans would rather the team not participate in the AFC Champions League but participate in the Chinese Super League every year.

The AFC Champions League is a game for giants, but anyone who can participate in this competition and can achieve good results is a club that is willing to throw money at the team.

The Twinkles are clearly not such a deep-pocketed club, and the financiers behind them have never resorted to more aggressive financial measures in order to improve the team's results. Otherwise they wouldn't have been in the Second Division and the First Division for so many years.

A big part of the reason why everyone was so happy last season was that the team won the FA Cup, not because they reached the AFC Champions League......

As if to prove this concern of the fans, in the first round of the AFC Champions League group stage, the flash star gave Osaka a 0:3 victory away from home.

The 0:3 score is a good indication of the gap between the champions of the Central League and the runners-up of the J1 League in Japan, the former losing to the latter.

Junhei Morikawa started the game, but his running didn't help the team win the game, and he couldn't even keep the tie.

Jun Morikawa, who lost the game, was very frustrated, and then after the game, he met Koichi Sato, the head coach of the national Olympic team.

Obviously, Coach Sato came to see him perform.

He plays in China, and Japan does not broadcast the Chinese league, so if Coach Sato wants to keep an eye on his game, of course he has to watch the AFC Champions League.

This also shows that Coach Sato really did not give up on himself if he said so.

Thinking of this, Junhei Morikawa's mood is much better.

But the thought that he had just lost the ball made his expression fall again.

How could Koichi Sato not understand what was going on in the mind of this second-year teenager?

Seeing this, he smiled and patted Junhei Morikawa on the shoulder: It's okay, the failure of this game has nothing to do with you, it's the overall strength of the shining star team that is too far apart...... You've done what the manager has given you, and individually, you can walk away with your head held high.

Junhei Morikawa didn't leave with his head held high in the end, because he still cared about the result of this match.

For many people, it is not surprising that the Twinkle Star lost this game, and from the comparison of the strength of the two teams, the loss is a matter of course, and no one will use the defeat of this game to criticize the Twinkle Star's poor performance.

But many of the shining star players, including Junpei Morikawa, still seemed silent on the plane back home.

Except for Qin Lin, everyone else in the Shining Stars team is participating in Asian-level club events for the first time, just like people from the mountains who come to a big city for the first time.

Before coming, they always had all kinds of longings and fantasies about that glamorous world.

Fantasized about getting ahead in this new world full of opportunities and walking to pick up gold, and became a blockbuster.

But after coming, they found that the gap between fantasy and reality was so huge, like a moat, lying in front of them.

Full of gold? It's a beating all over the head!

Dong Wen, who went with the team, felt the team's low mood, and the plane was still in the sky, so he couldn't wait to go to the team's head coach Zhao Kangming and expressed his worries to him.

After Zhao Kangming listened to Dong Wen's words, he comforted him: Actually, don't worry too much, Lao Dong. This is the characteristic of young people. When we decide to play the young card, we should know that young people are easy to get emotional and depressed. Come fast and go fast.

Then don't you just do nothing? Dong Wen asked.

It depends on what makes you depressed. Is it because of the loss that you are negative? On the surface, this is true, but the deeper reason comes from the huge gap between their previous fantasy and reality. They thought about the AFC Champions League too simply, perhaps because they won the South China Tigers in the Super Cup, and the first round of the Chinese Super League had a good start, which brought many of them the illusion that even the AFC Champions League was no big deal. Zhao Kangming patiently explained that in such a situation, losing the game and seeing the real difficulty of the AFC Champions League, I don't think there is a problem at all due to the low mood. It will be fine after a while, and it will also cool them down and make them more pragmatic.

After listening to Zhao Kangming's explanation, Dong Wen thought thoughtfully, and then asked: Old Zhao, aren't you worried that young people will be hit too hard, and if they collapse, the confidence they have built up will be gone?

Zhao Kangming smiled and kept waving his hand: It's serious, Lao Dong. After losing such a game, can you slump? I'm not going to talk about anything else, but where does the confidence of our team come from? Did you earn it by walking shit luck? Of course not, we won the FA Cup as a team in the Chinese League, and won the Super Cup as a promoted horse, and we built it up step by step. If we have a solid foundation, our faith will not fall like a castle in the air. Although playing this AFC Champions League will bring some trouble to our league, it does not mean that we are lucky to come to the AFC Champions League. We also have AFC Champions League level strength.

Speaking of this, Zhao Kangming's tone became proud, this is his achievement in coaching the team, and he naturally has some confidence as a head coach.

When he was proud of his team, assistant coach Chen Mo interjected next to him: Besides, Lao Dong, did you ignore a very important factor?

What factors? Dong Wen was confused.

O Hulai! Chen Mo patted his thigh and said: With Hu Lai here, do you still have to worry that the internal atmosphere of the team will be sluggish and negative?

Dong Wen suddenly realized, his eyes lit up: Ouch, look at my memory, I forgot him...... Yes, yes, Lao Chen, you are right, there is Hu Lai, I am worried about a hammer!

Zhao Kangming smiled when he saw him like this: This is the other reason I didn't say just now. When have you ever seen Hu Lai appear in front of us with a dead face every day?

That didn't. Dong Wen shook his head again and again, and then completely relieved himself.

As the announcement came from the cabin that the plane would land in half an hour, the stone in his heart fell to the ground.

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PS, sorry, forgot to update automatically......