Tashkent: United City FC coach Jason Withe was left to lament an opportunity gone begging after his side’s AFC Champions League debut ended in a 1-1 draw against a severely depleted Beijing FC outfit at Bunyodkor Stadium on Friday.
Ahead thanks to a sublime Stephan Shröck strike, and dominant in nearly every statisctical indicator, the Filipino outfit looked to be sailing to a historic victory with 20 minutes remaining, but Beijing’s 19-year-old skipper Liang Shaowen produced a strike every bit as good as Schröck’s to earn a share of the spoils.
Liang’s goal was Beijing’s only shot on the target for the 90 minutes, and while Withe’s side succeeded in becoming the first from the Philippines to secure an AFC Champions League point, it was the two they left behind that were the focus of the coach’s attention.
“I’m very disappointed,” said Withe. “I think we dominated for large periods of the game. You look at possession, it’s probably 70 per cent possession for us, one shot on goal (for Beijing), which was obviously a great freekick.
“To go 90 minutes without conceding a shot, we should be pleased with that. We saw that Beijing FC were happy with the draw and celebrating at the final whistle, so I think we represented the club well.
“It’s all about testing yourselves against the best teams. I’m very pleased with what I’ve seen today. We have created chances. The fine difference in football is scoring and not scoring. If you don’t put the ball in the back of the net, you don’t win. We created chances but didn’t take them. We learn from it and move on.”
United City have approximately 72 hours to soak up the lessons of their opening AFC Champions League experience, with the games coming thick and fast over the next two weeks in the tournament’s Tashkent bubble.
Saturday’s clash was the club’s first competitive hit out in 2021, but the debutants ran the game out well, pushing for the winner until the final whistle, and very nearly finding it when substitute Mark Hartmann rattled the crossbar from distance late on.
“Our preparation in Dubai has been about building up to these 90 minutes,” explained Withe.
“We played three friendlies, but it was all geared towards peaking on time for competitive matches. From here it’s about building competitive match fitness. It is all about recovery as we have the games coming in in a short span of time.
“Tonight, we finished the game very strong, unlike our opposition.”
While the points were shared at Bunyodkor Stadium, there was little doubt about which coach left the happier, with Beijing’s Zoran Jankovic delighted to have claimed a point despite fielding a side with almost no previous experience at the continental level.
Jankovic is filling in for regular Beijing boss Slaven Bilic, who remains in China alongside the vast majority of the club’s first team squad, but Liang’s superb strike ensured that the group’s youngest squad lived up to their coach’s pre-tournament pledge.
“We said in the pre-match press conference that our objective was to collect some points, and we already collected points with a surprise performance from our players.” said Jankovic.
“For me the problem at half time was that I needed to change two players and change the formation. There was a lot of mistakes, but I changed the formation, and it was a good decision from us and the staff to do that. We played well and even had a chance to score a second goal towards the end, so it was a big surprise."
"This tournament is very difficult for our players who are very young. Almost all of whom were born between 2000 and 2003. It was not nice when I saw two or three players laying down with cramps in their legs. I don’t like to see that, but we must know that these kids are very young, and they have not played this type of game.
“For them it is more difficult to play at this level, but it was a perfect game for us.”
Beijing’s next test is expected to be even more challenging, with a date with reigning Japanese champions Kawasaki Frontale locked in for Tuesday, while United City will face Korea Republic’s Daegu FC.
Of course he should be disappointed because he almost lost to a U22 team whose all homegrowns and locals playing with confidencce. China will become a football power in Asia soon by investing on their homegrowns and putting up long term plans while PFF still making shortcuts with no exact plan for the homegrowns.
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