WHILE matches in the Hyundai A-League are top of mind for Mariners players and coaching staff at the moment, there is no denying that the 2012 AFC Champions League Group Stage is approaching at a rapid rate.
And while Graham Arnold’s team is being battle hardened for the Champions League with test after test in Australia’s top flight, Tianjin TEDA have been busy preparing themselves for Asia’s premier club competition, too.
Here at ccmariners.com.au we deemed it time to check in with the groundwork being undertaken by Tianjin’s Croatian manager Josip Kuze for the new Chinese Super League (CSL) season, as well as the continental competition every Asian club craves to become Champions of.
Foreign Signings
Tianjin TEDA have been busy replenishing their foreign player stocks for their 2012 assault, with three new visa players arriving to represent the club hailing from the 37,450 capacity TEDA Football Stadium.
Upfront, the club has added 27-year-old Dutch striker Sjoerd Ars to their frontline. Ars, who has spent the majority of his playing career in the Dutch Erste Divisie, joins TEDA on loan from Bulgarian side Levski Sofia. The striker has a good goal to game ratio in the Netherlands second tier and reportedly speed in his locker.
TEDA have also added to their defensive line with the signing of Romanian centre-back Lucian Goian has joined the club from Astra Ploiesti. A former Dinamo Bucharest player, Goian is the younger brother of Rangers defender Dorin Goian and clearly isn’t afraid of stepping up from 12-yards – the stopper netted the only goal from the spot in a 1-0 friendly win over Crvena Zvezda (Red Star Belgrade) earlier this month.
One player to have signed on the dotted line with Kuze’s team who Mariners fans will be more familiar with is Milan Susak. Swapping the red of Adelaide United for the purple and white of Tianjin TEDA, Susak recently tweeted that his first match for the Chinese Cup winners will be against the Mariners on AFC Champions League Matchday One.
Indeed, coach Kuze is new to the club as well, having replaced Arie Haan in the Tianjin hot seat for this season. The Croatian boss is extremely well travelled, having mentored the likes of JEF United Chiba (Japan), Dinamo Zagreb (Croatia) and Mainz 05 (Germany) in the past. On the international stage, Kuze’s last gig was for the Albanian National Team, and he also coached Rwanda in 2007 and 2008.
In Camp
Tianjin TEDA have spent much of the month of February in the idyllic Turkish city of Antalya clutched to the Mediterranean coastline. Using his contacts from Europe, Kuze arranged a number of friendly matches for his team as they look to ready themselves for the rigours of the AFC Champions League.
TEDA’s results in Antalya didn’t commence how Kuze would have desired – the team lost 3-1 to Moldovan First Division outfit FC Zimbru Chisinau on February 1 – however the club would secure a number of sound results as their camp continued.
On February 7, Tianjin defeated FK Rad Belgrade of the Serbian SuperLiga 2-0 thanks to goals from Sjoerd Ars and Li Benjian. Of Tianjin’s new foreign recruits, Goian and Ars both started the match. Yu Dabao – the 23-year-old front man once on the books of Portuguese powerhouse Benfica – also featured.
Three days later Tianjin secured undoubtedly the greatest triumph of their pre-season thus far, defeating Serbian heavyweights Crvena Zvezda 1-0. A penalty converted by Goian secured the friendly triumph.
This weekend, Tianjin TEDA have the chance to claim their first silverware of 2012 when they meet last years CSL Champions (and fellow AFC Champions League Group Stage participants) Guangzhou Evergrande in the Chinese Super Cup in Guangzhou.
Central Coast Mariners will meet Tianjin TEDA in Tianjin on Wednesday 7 March – AFC Champions League 2012 Matchday One. www.ccmariners.com.au is the best place to keep tabs on the team with photo galleries, video and news from inside the Mariners camp uploaded throughout the stay in China.