Talking Balls: Blazing Trails in Portland, Costly Foreign Faces and Those Downtrodden Ducks

New Year’s resolution for sports have always been associated with winning another champion or breaking the world record, but for China’s sportswear tycoon Li Ning, his resolution is open his first US store in Portland on January 4.

Beijing Guo’an fans have been feeling increasingly disappointed over the club’s efforts to acquire new players. After securing the deal with the Newcastle Jets for Joel Griffiths, Guo’an’s only other foreign acquisition is Otto Valdo, the Brazilian striker from the now relegated Hangzhou Greentown. Considering the cool RMB 40 million that Guo’an claims to have spent on acquiring players for the new season, we’re not sure if he’s the right choice. This leaves Otto Valdo, Darko Matic, Joel Griffiths and his brother Ryan as the four laowai faces in the upcoming CSL season and AFC Champion’s League. According to CFA regulations, the CSL champion is still allowed another foreign player, who’s most likely to be a center back on the defense line.

And while football continues to disappoint, Beijingers are surely feeling worse about their basketball team, the Beijing Ducks, which has only won one out of their four games so far this season (including a home loss to those dastardly Shanghai Sharks), putting them at the bottom of CBA Basketball League at the moment. What’s worse is Sun Mingming, one of The Ducks’ most exciting purchasing of the year, who is having a hard time of dealing with criticism from his teammates for being too slow. His 7-foot-9-Inch frame might have proven threatening to Jackie Chan and Chris Tucker in Rush Hour 3, but it seems in basketball you need a little more than height.

Another sportsman having a hard time is Zheng Zhi, who didn’t take to the field until the 80th minute of Celtic’s 2-0 winning over Hamilton Academical. During his short time on the pitch, Zheng’s sole shot was rejected by the Hamilton goalkeeper.

On the other hand, it’s not all bad news for Chinese players abroad – although his team lost 105-89 to the Oklahoma City Thunder, Yi Jianlian scored a new career high with 29 points and 7 rebounds for the New Jersey Nets.

This is probably the first talking ball post without news of corruption, scandals and match-fixings. We will have more of those next week.