With the football world in China and beyond looking forward to a historic CFA Cup Final Shanghai Derby kicking off with the first leg at Hongkou Stadium this Sunday evening, The Chinese Football Podcast crew are pulling out all the stops to bring our listeners a unique, intensely Shanghainese insight into the hopes, fears and expectations among the fans on the ground – and the place this derby has in local fan culture. We pull together five Shanghai-based lovers of the game for a live recording of the pod to talk star players, tactics, and how they see the games unfolding.
Wild East Football’s Steve Crooks is the host, joined by a local and international perspective from each side of the derby – Cameron Wilson and Bobby Lu in the Shenhua corner, and Ma Minglun joining WEF’s Jeff Beresford-Howe in the Shanghai International Port Group corner.
The fans take in a wide-ranging discussion on what their clubs mean to them and their native or adoptive city, the star players they hope or fear a big performance from, whether this is more of a consolation trophy for the red side of town, and just how spectacularly badly Shenhua’s preparations have gone with a 7-1 (yes, seven) defeat in a friendly in Jeju. The discussion turns to the closely intertwined fate and narrative of two very different football clubs and Shanghai rivalries past and present, with the boys finding some surprising common ground in a very honest and open chat. Of course we couldn’t let the panel go without asking them each for their predictions and their thoughts on who really “reps” Shanghai in modern football following that famous Shenhua fan banner.
Stream the cast using the player above, subscribe on itunes, listen on Stitcher, download or check out other subscription options.
Don’t miss the chance to get involved in the discussion on Twitter at #chinafootypod – we do your best to field and answer your questions every week.
Steve hosts the Chinese Football Podcast, having joined the WEF team as correspondent for Shanghai Shenhua, the side he has followed since moving to Shanghai in 2010. Exiled from the Victorian town-centre idyll of Feethams along with his childhood football team, Steve spent many an (un)happy year on Hongkou's North Terrace along with the Shenhua Element Crew and Blue Devils before relocating to Sydney from where he continues to follow the Chinese game from afar.
Join in the discussion on #chinafootypod
Previous Podcasts
After the goals last week, referees take centre-stage here – with the CSL seeing a record number of red cards and penalties but relatively little controversy, should we look back …
It’s been raining high-quality goals in the CSL – and whether your preference is cheeky backheels, long-range screamers or hilarious last-minute goalkeeper snafus, there’s something here for you – the …
There’s plenty of off-the-pitch goings-on for the pod to debate this week – whether it’s enjoying Wuhan’s Rafael da Silva’s school-style apology letter or arguing the merits of checking how …
Once again the pod find themselves forced to answer the questions of whether the China national team has hit a new low, just how this big-spending football-power-in-waiting manages to underachieve …
Resisting the urge to talk about the China Cup until the dust has settled, the pod takes the extended international break as a chance to catch up on some lesser-discussed …
Two rounds in with the season picking up momentum – what better time could there be for an extended break to accommodate the China Cup in Nanning? With no squad …
The 2019 CSL season is finally off the mark, with all of last season’s title contenders avoiding some potential banana-skin openers – we look back on easy wins for last …
The best of the rest, the worst of the rest, and everything in between – it’s a bumper preview this week as the pod runs the rule over the challenging …
With the clock ticking the the season’s start on March 1st, the pod runs the rule over the title contenders for what is shaping up to be a very unpredictable …
The pod rings in the new lunar year with a return to matters club football. We double down on the big news stories which have been developing during our recent …
You must be logged in to post a comment Login
You must log in to post a comment.