Who's hot, who's not in China Sports (Week 18)

Conca frustrated

Guangzhou Evergrande's Argentine striker Dario Conca is frustrated, irate, and confused about coach Lee Jang-Soo's decision on his playing minutes. In the team's fiasco against the Jeonbuk Hyundai Motors in their AFC Championship League match on Tuesday, he scored a penalty goal in the 10th minute. But he was replaced by Jiang Ning 15 minutes into the second half, when the game was tied at 1-1. The Argentinean's fury was easy to tell as he kicked a bottle away after that. And Evergrande lost the game 3-1 after Jeonbuk's forward Lee Dong-Gook scored two goals in injury time.

"I don't understand why they always sideline me with the excuse that I am exhausted and need rest," Conca writes in Chinese on his Sina Weibo early on Thursday morning. "How could I kick the crucial hit if I am not in condition? And why do the coaches always have Conca take a rest?"

The minutes Conca put in hasn't correlated with his $7 million salary, which was the highest in the Chinese Super League before Evergrande signed Dortmund's Paraguayan forward Lucas Barrios on Wednesday, with an estimated annual salary of 6.7 million euros. He sat out Evergrande's league game against Henan Jianye, and came off the bench in another two CSL games.

It's reported that Lee has decided to take disciplinary measures against Conca for his remarks on Weibo.

Iverson craze in China

I wrote about Allen Iverson's possibility of signing with a CBA club last week, quoting a media source. Now we actually can hear his thoughts in person.

"Playing in China would be a great opportunity for me, and hopefully something like that will happen in the future," the former NBA Most Valuable Player said at a press conference after the US Legends' second game against the Beijing Ducks on Monday.

He was impressed with the enthusiasm from Chinese fans.

"Coming here is the best part of all. It is just being embraced by the fans. The way the fans treat me is just a special feeling, one that I can't really describe."

Watch how much Chinese fans love AI in this video.

 

Injured spiker doubtful for Olympics

Wang Yimei, one of China's ace spikers, will be out for six weeks after surgery on Thursday for a torn ankle ligament sustained when she landed on a teammate's foot during practice last weekend. Theoretically, she could make the Olympics in late July, but how well she would have recovered by then will affect the Chinese women's volleyball team's performance a lot.

 

Shenhua targets Owen?

Nicolas Anelka just won a civil strife that ended with the eviction of coach Jean Tigana, and now he is reportedly ready to come up with another stunning move: bringing in Michael Owen, Manchester United's former striker.

The Sun disclosed the exclusive news on Thursday, saying Shenhua will pursue the 32-year-old Owen, who is out of contract this summer and seems unlikely to get an offer from the Red Devils.