Opera mauling is music to the ears
Date:2007-10-29
Shanghai Yue Opera ran out of tune today as Shanghai Daily did the unthinkable and clobbered the Opera 5-2 in the annual Wenxin cup tournament at the Jin'an Workers Stadium.
The result was clearly the upset of the day.
The musicians, tipped as favorites ahead of the tournament, had justified the tag with a 4-1 mauling of Xinmin Evening News and a 7-1 whitewash of Xinmin Hotel 7-1.
The scribes were understandably apprehensive of another blowout but stuck well together that would even have had Arsenal Wenger and his young Gunners sit up and take notice.
They defended well against the early Opera raids with Eric Yang in central defense complimented well on either side by Jiang Yuan and Fu Chenghao. As the initial hesitation eased slowly, the midfield duo of Chen Bo and Chen Yin got their acts together and took the musicians by surprise by regular darts straight down the middle.
The Daily's lone shark upfront Zhou Nan ensured that it would be no walkover as the Opera stood muffled and taken by surprise.
In less than 15 minutes the Daily was up 3-0 on goals from Chen Yin, Zhou Nan and Jiang Yuan and threw the opera out of their stride.
The scoreline for the daily could have read higher with Chen Yin guilty of missing couple of sitters.
The panicked Opera made three substitutions under the bar but it had little effect as Shanghai Daily, their self-belief growing, came up with a grinding performance that stifled the Opera movement in the center of the field.
It was a virtuoso performance that was music to the ears for the Daily's army of young cheerleaders, with keeper Zhang Liuhao impressive once again as the last line of defense.
In the only sour note of the day, hardworking Zhou took a hit on his leg when he scored the fourth goal for the Daily and is a doubtful starter in the next match.
Jiang added the fifth after breezing past the Opera defenders and finding the net from a tight angle.
With the win, Shanghai Daily has sealed a spot in the semifinals with Xinmin Hotel next up on Friday, November 2.
In the semifinals, Group A toppers take on Group B runner-up and Group B leader playing against Group B second-placer.
In another match of the group, Wenhui Daily forfeited the match against Xinmin Hotel with Hotel likely to be awarded the match 3-0.
The annual soccer tournament has 10 teams divided into two groups with the top two teams from each advancing to the semifinal. Shanghai Daily finished third place last year, its highest in history.
Chen Bo spot-on for Shanghai Daily
Date:2007-10-26
Shanghai Daily kept up the early round momentum with a second straight win in the annual Wenxin Cup this afternoon with skipper Chen Bo once again on target -- sealing the game from the spot.
The scoreline should have read higher but for some brilliant keeping by the Xinmin Evening News keeper who palmed away at least three sureshot goals.
But the keeper was lucky to escape with a warning -- instead of seeing red -- after he rushed out of his box to parry the ball with Chen Bo poised to score.
Shanghai Daily keeper Zhang Liuhao had one big save for the day but otherwise had little to do with much of the game being played out on the rival territory.
The English-language newspaper won its opening game with a convincing 4-0 victory over Wenhui Daily on Wednesday.
Xinmin was mauled by Shanghai Yue Opera 4-1 in its opener and was hoping to make amends but clearly lacked ideas with noticeable internal bickerings.
The eveninger pressed on despite the early first-half setback but was unable to get past a midfield manned by Chen Bo and Xiao Sha with regular defenders Eric Yang and Jiang Yuan playing out their role to near perfection.
Chen Bo fires Shanghai Daily
Date:2007-10-24
Shanghai Daily striker Chen Bo (center) runs for the ball as Wenhui Daily players try to close in during their Wenxin Cup match today. The captain scored twice as Shanghai Daily eased to a 4-0 victory. -- Zhang Suoqing
Shanghai Daily won the opening game of the annual Wenxin Cup, with a convincing 4-0 victory over Wenhui Daily today.
Captain Chen Bo, our veteran business editor, was the player of the game, running tirelessly and causing all sorts of problems for the opponents with his speed and guile. His Fabregas-style performance -- two goals and an assist -- was the key that unlocked the rivals' defense, bringing a seemingly easy victory.
The Shanghai Daily team pressed the Wenhui team from the first second, making it difficult for them to enter their part of the turf, let alone the box.
After several tentative raids, striker Chen Yin broke the stalemate in the 10th minute. Chen Bo and Ma Jun, our opinion writer, wreaked havoc in the box, and Chen Yin seized on the opportunity to smash in the opening goal amid a scramble in front of the goalkeeper.
Five minutes later it was Chen Bo time -- his corner kick finding central defender Eric Yang, who finished it with an amazing header.
Down 0-2, the Wenhui team tried to salvage the situation in the second half, but their aggression in search of that elusive goal gave Shanghai Daily strikers more space. Despite several offside decisions, Chen Bo, Chen Yin and substitute Qian Tong kept the Wenhui goalkeeper busy.
Time to bend it like Becks
Date:2007-10-23
As usual, the boys of our newsroom vow to go all out to create some soccer history f...
The weekend is coming, are you bored?
Date:2007-10-19
Tummy rumblings and tough decisions
Date:2007-10-17
The online department gets busy around 9 o'clock every morning. We start by saying good morning to each other, but soon (less than 90 minutes, shorter than a soccer match) people start discussing what to eat for lunch.
After reading the story "No such thing as a cheap lunch" in today's paper, we all nodded and agreed.
Lunching is always a problem, not huge, but big enough to be called a headache. It's true that we have a canteen in our building, the Wenhui Xinmin United Press Tower, but the canteen isn't known for its delicious food.
The cafeteria is open from 11:30am to 1:30pm, but that doesn't tell the full story. If we get there later than 12:30pm, there are very few choices and the ayis in the canteen start to drive us away at about 12:45pm.
The food there also very greasy, which isn't very healthy. "They only have two tastes. The first taste is salty, and the second is too salty," commented Kat Jiang, a reporter with our online department.
The "bad" canteen forces our colleagues to find food outside the building. But our office is near Nanjing Road W. within one of the most expensive areas in town.
We often have several options, including mifen (rice noodles), gaijiaofan (set course with rice), wontons, jiaozi, junk food and bento (Japanese lunch box) from 24h stores.
Bento from 24h store Lawson
Follow-up to unhappy cabbie story
Date:2007-10-15
Tips to end unhappy cabbie stories
Date:2007-10-11
The ShanghaiDaily.com recently received a comment from a reader named Roger at containing another expat's sad experience with Shanghai cabs.
The story goes like this:
Posted: 2007-10-8 18:02:31
Name: Roger
Age: 40-59
Nationality: France
I came back yesterday evening to Hongqiao airport and had a small problem with a taxi :
As it was overcrowded, we waited patiently for one hour to get a taxi and when we finally got one, he drove us for a few hundred meters, found out that our house was not far enough (maybe around a 20 yuan drive) for him and dropped us (my exhausted four years old kid, I and our heavy luggage) outside the airport!
I took a picture of the license plate (E V0920) of this driver and I wanted to complain to the Shanghai Public Transportation Management Bureau but they do not speak English. One of my Chinese friend called them and they started to ask if the driver charged us some fees and if we had a receipt !!?? As he drove us a few hundred meters, he did not have the nerve to charge us (obviously) so this efficient public servant told us that there is nothing they can do! When my friend asked them how one should get back home from Hongqiao Airport if they live close to the airport like Gubei or Fthe rench/German school (which means a lot of expats and probably one million Chinese), he replied that we have to find a nice driver!!!!
Where can we SERIOUSLY complain?
After reading the story, we couldn't help asking ourselves: What has gone wrong with Shanghai's taxi industry?
The city's taxi service used to be considered the best in China, not only because the cabbies are honest and always use the meter, but also because the city has a good management system to hear complaints and make sure that anyone who breaks the rules will be heavily punished.
