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 year’s top two and some tight victories for Shandong and Guoan. We discuss the demise of the Shanghai derby as a competitive fixture and a promising start for some key new signings ahead of the first round of Champions League fixtures.
There’s time for a pod discussion on the media hype surrounding Wu Lei’s first goal in Spain – is the media and fan obsession unhealthy and patronizing, or an understandable source of pride? As ever, the answer isn’t black and white for the panel.
There’s a great undercover fanzine name which comes up in the Phenomenon of the Week discussion before we switch gears to explain and lament the CFA’s latest rule-switching confusion around newly-naturalized players and wrap up by looking forward to another tasty weekend of fixtures and the start of the continental campaign.
Host Steve Crooks is joined by Chinese football experts Cameron Wilson in Shanghai and Brandon Chemers in Beijing for this week’s episode.
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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.
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