Opinion | CSL on Fifa 19: not quite fantasy football but you can see why the China league is joining the EA party

Game week 14 provided an opportunity as good as any to remind everyone of why the league and the players in it might actually matter

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Shanghai Shenhua players celebrate after scoring against Beijing Guoan during the China derby. Photo: Xinhua

Published: 5:11pm, 30 Jul 2018Updated: 5:11pm, 30 Jul 2018

In the first round of games after the Chinese Super League continued on Friday, it was confirmed that the CSL will be included in the latest iteration of the incredibly successful video games series.

Game week 14 provided an opportunity as good as any to remind everyone of why the league and the players in it might actually matter.

Case 1 – The China derby

A bit of needle is a good thing and this game has more needle than a factory that puts together sewing kits. The historic rivalry of the country is between the capital and the biggest city, in football terms that manifests as Beijing Guoan v Shanghai Shenhua and boy did it manifest at Shanghai’s Hongkou Stadium on Saturday night.

Floodlights, a heatwave and a vast number of away fans not knowing if they were going to get in added to the atmosphere but the game delivered in a way that belied the first versus sixth of the table and the seven-point gap.

The Beijingers snatched the lead before the interval thanks to their Brazilian midfielder Renato Augusto before Shanghai’s very own Eddy “Aidi” Francis tapped in a rebound – the Shanghai-born son of a Shanghainese mother and East African father, the 27-year-old defender has been accepted by the fans despite his previous ties to the team that became SIPG.