Taishan once again became the bitter master of Shenhua, and Kangxi was unable to sustain the lineup in the face of lack of talent. The reason why Shandong Taishan is still the favorite to win the championship is not only the well-known traditional halo of "Taishan Cup", but also the famous handsome effect of Cui Kangxi. After Cui Laoshuai took over halfway, he successfully helped Taishan take on a new look, and planned many surprising winning tactics in the Chinese Super League, AFC Champions League and FA Cup, so that Taishan gradually got rid of the dilemma of relegation and realized the three-line battle going hand in hand.
Before the FA Cup final, all the ** who pinned their hopes on Mount Tai relied on Choi Kang-hee's tactical means. However, this final revealed that Choi Kang-hee's magic could not make up for the serious shortcomings of Taishan's lineup. The absence of Moises, Judson, Wang Tong, Tong Lei and other main players made Taishan's originally advantageous bench become an Achilles' heel, and Cui Laoshuai's preemptive tactics were also unable to be used because no one was available. Choi Kang-hee's cleverness and resourcefulness seemed a little helpless in the face of a lack of lineup this time.
While people overestimate Taishan's strength, they generally underestimate Shenhua, whose strength is stronger than fame. Although Shenhua's performance throughout the season was not as good as Taishan's, Shenhua showed stronger combat effectiveness in the FA Cup final, where "the weak team defeated the strong team". This is the third time that Shenhua have fought back in the FA Cup final, beating the favourite. In 2017, they defeated local derby rivals SIPG, and in 2019, they successfully counterattacked Taishan, and this year they re-enacted the scene from five years ago.
It is worth mentioning that in the two finals in 2017 and this year, Shenhua's coach was the scheming Wu Jingui. And in 2019, it was Cui Kangxi, who was considered to be more scheming than Wu Jingui, who directed the "Three Stuffy Sticks" show. The confrontation between the two "old schemers" proved that Wu Jingui was even more spicy, and he gave full play to the word "old plotter" and deep calculation. Wu Jingui is simply cunning.
Taishan's defeat stemmed from the "fighting spirit" of the penultimate round of the Chinese Super League against SIPG. In this game, Choi Kang-hee decided to stop SIPG with all his might, which resulted in the suspension of Moises and Fernando with red cards, plus the previous suspension of Judson, which caused the FA Cup final squad to be drastically reduced. This decision objectively damaged Taishan's overall strength, especially in the finals, where there was a large area of physical exhaustion.
However, looking back on the entire 2023 season, Choi Kang-hee successfully reversed Taishan's decline and achieved the best results of finishing runner-up in the Chinese Super League and FA Cup. This report card is even more dazzling than SIPG, which only reached the top of the Chinese Super League, and Shenhua, which only had highlights in the FA Cup. Choi Kang-hee deserves to be the best coach in the Chinese Super League this season.
Now, Tarzan has no time to wallow in the regret of losing the FA Cup. Three days later, Choi Kang-hee will lead the team to the crucial AFC Champions League home game against Kaya, which will be the decisive battle for Taishan to lock up the right to qualify from the group ahead of schedule. Let's cheer them on.