“Hey Asia! Guess who’s coming?”
That was the message from the Chengdu Rongcheng fans emblazoned across their full-stadium Tifo display ahead of their AFC Champions League Elite preliminary playoff against Thailand’s Bangkok United.
Three second-half goals saw the team from south-western China record a 3-0 win to book their place in the League Stage of the AFC Champions League Elite for the first time in their very short history.
Ahead of their opening game, against two-time former champions Ulsan HD of South Korea, midfielder Tim Chow has echoed the thoughts of his fans, declaring his desire to use this campaign to put the club and the city on the map.
“We have no expectations, but don’t be mistaken, we’re gonna go there to try and win every game,” the 31-year-old told The Asian Game Podcast.
“No matter who we’re playing, we will try to win. We will give 100% this is just who we are. But I’m so excited for the club and for the city that they’re gonna get to experience this, that other people are going to get to experience Chengdu, and we’re going to put Chengdu on the map more in Asia.
“No matter if we win or we lose, we draw, as long as our fans see us giving 100 percent they are right behind us, 100 percent, the whole game, 90 minutes. They’re incredible.
“The reason why I was desperate for us to get to the Champions League was because I think that everyone in Asia needs to be able to experience our fans. I want to take these fans across Asia and really, everyone’s gonna say, ‘wow, that’s Chengdu’.
“So, I’m buzzing for these fans. I’m buzzing for the city that we made it there, I’m looking forward to it. I think in China, people always think about Shanghai or Guangzhou or Beijing. No, let’s put Chengdu on the map like that. So we want to win.”
Luckily for Chow and his teammates, winning is something they are proving to be very good at. With just six games remaining in the Chinese Super League, they sit two points clear on top of the table with six wins and a draw from their last seven, and face a top-of-the-table clash with Shanghai Shenhua this weekend.
“It’s an exciting week for us,” the Wigan-born midfielder said.
“Our first Champions League game. We’ll play Wednesday, and then we’re going to go directly to Shanghai for a big game there against Shanghai Shenhua. Then after that, we also have another away game in Zhejiang.
“So actually, we’re going to be away for 12 days in total. But, this is the business end of the season now, this is the important time of the season, so we just will go and embrace it and let’s face it head on.”
Competing on multiple fronts, and with a first-ever league title tantalisingly close, one might forgive the club for focusing their attentions on the domestic front, at least in the opening rounds of the continental competition that coincide with the close to the CSL season.
But this is something the club have been working towards for months now, and Chow is confident the team has the fitness and depth to withstand the demands of playing on multiple fronts.
“From a physical perspective, I’d probably say we’re the fittest team,” Chow explained.
“From the pre-season onwards, we were well prepared to handle these extra games, I would say. And then on a football and basis, we’re just constant.
“(The coach is) just constantly hammering home about the tempo, and the speed of play and just saying once when to go into the Champions League, the speed is going to be so much faster. This is what we have to be ready for. We need to reduce the number of touches. We need to play faster. We need to think faster. Everything has to be faster just to try and get us ready for that, because, it is going to be a new experience for us.”
What won’t be new will be the travel. While the flights will be longer when they venture to places like Ulsan or Johor, travel is something they are accustomed to being based in south-west China where the closest club is 900km away, while a round-trip to Beijing or Shanghai would see them rack up almost 4000km in travel.
“Yeah, and it really takes a lot out of you,” he said of the constant travel.
“I mean, (for) a standard away game it’s a four day trip, really. You travel two days before the game, and you travel home the day after the game, and being in Chengdu, we are the team that travels the most, because we’re based in the southwest, most of the teams in China along the east coast.
“So we are the team that travels the most. You know, we cannot take the high-speed train anywhere, literally we’re flying minimum two hours anywhere we go.”
Whether they’re coming or going, Chengdu are always on the move and now that has them set for a maiden continental campaign.
They told us they were coming and now they have arrived, and you get the sense this is exactly where they are meant to be.
Listen to Episode 255 of The Asian Game Podcast
