We are about to start a new season full of enthusiasm and high hopes. Last year’s fantastic results will surely be remembered fondly by our fans after the team broke all the club’s records, but that is already in the past and now we must start all over again. The team has trained well in Mallorca (Spain) in preparation for the first match of the qualifying round for the Asian Champions League against Thailand’s Bangkok Glass. One of our key objectives for this season is to play in the group phase of the AFC Champions League and make it through to the knockout stage. Last year we were left with the feeling that we could have made it through if we had scored the penalty in the closing minutes of the match in Australia against Central Coast Mariners.

This season there are three strong teams awaiting in the group stage: Australia’s Brisbane Roar, Japan’s Urawa Red Diamonds and South Korea’s Suwon Samsung Bluewings. All three are great teams but we will put forth our best effort and have faith in making it through.

This season’s team is practically the same as last year. Although we have lost ZHANG XIXHE to Germany’s Wolfsburg, we have replaced him with YU DABAO, a promising player from Dalian Aerbin. We will try to maintain our style and personality on the pitch and improve our performance to make it as far as possible in each of the three competitions we will be playing in. This is one of our main objectives, in addition to striving to win some silverware.

As always, our loyal fans’ support will be essential this year and together we can dream with being even better than last season.

Gregorio Manzano Ballesteros

Head Coach of Beijing Guoan Football Club