Review : Taiwan 2021 Mulan Premier League – Round 10

December 25, 2021

Kaohsiung Sunny Bank  2-0 Taipei Bravo

Taichung Blue Whale 4-0  Taoyuan International

Hualien 0-1 Hang Yuan

Taichung Blue Whale and Hualien went into the final round level on points but with Taichung having a one goal better goal difference. With their last game to be played against winless Taoyuan International, Blue Whale were huge favourites to win the Mulan Premier League for the first time since 2019 and so it proved.

Taichung took the lead in the 16^th minute when a careless challenge on Li-chin Lai ( No 11 ) resulted in a penalty being awarded, and Maho Taneka sent the keeper the wrong way from the spot. Inter’s resistance was further broken just before half-time by two goals from Li-chin Lai. First, she smashed home from close range after her first effort had been bravely blocked by the Inter keeper, but she made no mistake from the rebound. In first half added on time Lai outpaced the Inter defence to run onto a long ball and calmly finished to make it 3-0 at the interval.

The icing on the cake was delivered 6 minutes from time, when Yu Hsuan Su ( No 10 ) ran through the middle of Inter defence to slot home, which made up for her hitting the post earlier in the second half.

Taichung were deserved champions, being the highest scorers in the league by some distance with 22 goals, and only conceded three times. Although they struggled against Hualien, Kaohsiung were the only other side who managed to avoid defeat again them. After their defeat to Hualien they looked to be almost out of the championship race, but they took advantage of the slip-ups by Hualien to claim the title.

With another blank, Inter had managed to go through the whole season without scoring a goal, and earnt just one point.

Hualien faced Hang Yuan needing to win by more goals than Taichung beat Inter, but Hang Yuan had held Hualien to a 0-0 draw earlier in the season, and had been defensively solid. Since the resumption from the Covid break, scoring goals had become a bit of a problem for Hualien, and today’s match mirrored Hualien’s game against Kaohsiung two weeks ago where they dominated possession but failed to create clear-cut chances. In the 56^th minute, Yen Ping Chen ( No 10 ) speculative left footed cross cum shot from the right sailed into the top corner after which there was no way back for Hualien.

Despite taking 4 points from Taichung, 0-1 defeats to Koahsiung and Hang Yuen, plus the 0-0 draw with Hang Yuan cost them the title. Forwards Wu Shi Ping and Tan Wen Lin, so prolific last season and before the Covid break this season, both failed to score after the resumption. Although Hualien only conceded 3 goals in their 10 matches, the lack of goals was their problem.

For Hang Yuan, it was a promising season taking 4 points from both Hualien and Taipei Bravo, but they were the only side that failed to beat Inter Taoyuan. Whilst they only conceded 11 goals, scoring just 10 themselves also tells a story.

Earlier, Kaohsiung completed their season with a 2-0 win to finish in third place, level on points with Hualien. They remarkably took the lead after only 32 seconds with Japanese midfielder Minon Wakabayashu’s glancing header from a cross from the left wing finding the far bottom corner. Taipei Bravo’s first touch of the ball was their goal-keeper picking the ball out of the net !

Lee Hsih Chen ( No 10 ) wrapped up the victory 10 minutes from time, taking advantage of some hesitancy in the Bravo defence to nip in-between the centre half and the keeper to be first onto a long ball and steer home past the stranded keeper.

For Kaohsiung it capped a remarkable turnaround from taking only 5 points from 15 league matches last season, whereas Taipei Bravo have slipped from a respectable 23 points and third place in 2020 to just 8 points from 10 games this season, with both wins coming against the back-markers Inter Taoyuan. Bravo only scored 8 goals all season, 5 of which came on the opening day win over Inter.