Transfers of Taiwan’s star players and new foreign signings have bolstered the lineups at several powerhouse clubs ahead of tomorrow’s start of the Taiwan Football Premier League (TFPL) season, although TSG (Taiwan Steel Group) remain the favorites to retain the title.
Eight teams, including the return of the promoted Taipei Deva Dragons (formerly the Taipei Flight Skywalkers), are playing four matches tomorrow with Hua Nan Bank as the league’s main sponsor.
Defending champions TSG face Hang Yuan in Tainan, Taichung Futuro take on Taipei Leopard Cat in Kaohsiung and Taipower are to face Taipei Deva Dragons in New Taipei City all at 4pm.
Photo courtesy of the CTFA
The other contest sees Ming Chuan University do battle with AC Taipei in Taoyuan at 6pm.
The most surprising development ahead of the season has been managerial changes, with Henry Von of Taichung Futuro and Chen Kuei-jen of Taipower quitting at the end of last season.
Both had previously led their respective clubs to titles and both are also former Taiwan national squad managers.
Von had led Futuro to the top of the table last year, but they faltered in the final two matches and allowed TSG to seize the title, while Chen headed an all-Taiwanese Taipower squad that finished in third place.
“We came close to winning the title last year... It was my decision to leave, with plans to take coaching certification courses in Europe to learn new concepts and the application of the latest technologies,” Von said.
It was also the end of the “Chen Era” at Taipower, with Chen having been in charge for close to two decades before he announced he was quitting late last year.
“I shall take responsibility for the unsatisfactory results, for the third-placed finish,” he said.
Both teams have promoted from within, with Futuro naming veteran player Chuang Ming-yen as their new manager, while Taipower have installed former player Huang Tse-ming.
Meanwhile, Japanese coach Toshiaki Imai returns to Taiwan after being named manager of Taipei Deva Dragons.
He had previously been in charge of the men’s and women’s national squads, and also had a brief spell at Futuro in 2020.
Futuro have also signed two Japanese players — Kaoru Takayama and Kenya Matsui, who both have experience in the J1 and J2 leagues in Japan — but they have lost goalkeeper Pan Wen-chieh and star midfielder Wu Chun-ching, who elected to return to their previous club TSG.
TSG manager Lo Chih-tsung is still at the helm, as he and his team aim to win the title for an unprecedented fourth consecutive season.
Hang Yuan manager Hong Ching-huai said that his team could challenge as he has a solid squad with the “Korean Oppa” Joo Ik-seong, the “Taiwanese Rooney” Wu Yen-shu and Japanese forward Shunya Ando up front, as well as stout defenders in Haiti’s Judelin Aveska and William Lopez of El Salvador.
Hong has also signed Gerardo Rabre of Honduras from Taipei Leopard Cat and forward Usman Diarra of Indonesia.
Taiwan’s women’s soccer league commences its season the following weekend, with six teams in action next Saturday.
Hualien City start the defense of their title against Taichung Blue Whale.
The qualifying round of the World Baseball Classic (WBC) is to be held at the Taipei Dome between Feb. 21 and 25, Major League Baseball (MLB) announced today. Taiwan’s group also includes Spain, Nicaragua and South Africa, with two of the four teams advancing onto the 2026 WBC. Taiwan, currently ranked second in the world in the World Baseball Softball Confederation rankings, are favorites to come out of the group, the MLB said in an article announcing the matchups. Last year, Taiwan finished in a five-way tie in their group with two wins and two losses, but finished last on tiebreakers after giving
North Korea’s FIFA Under-17 Women’s World Cup-winning team on Saturday received a heroes’ welcome back in the capital, Pyongyang, with hundreds of people on the streets to celebrate their success. They had defeated Spain on penalties after a 1-1 draw in the U17 World Cup final in the Dominican Republic on Nov. 3. It was the second global title in two months for secretive North Korea — largely closed off to the outside world; they also lifted the FIFA U20 Women’s World Cup in September. Officials and players’ families gathered at Pyongyang International Airport to wave flowers and North Korea flags as the
For King Faisal, a 20-year-old winger from Ghana, the invitation to move to Brazil to play soccer “was a dream.” “I believed when I came here, it would help me change the life of my family and many other people,” he said in Sao Paulo. For the past year and a half, he has been playing on the under-20s squad for Sao Paulo FC, one of South America’s most prominent clubs. He and a small number of other Africans are tearing across pitches in a country known as the biggest producer and exporter of soccer stars in the world, from Pele to Neymar. For
Coco Gauff of the US on Friday defeated top-ranked Aryna Sabalenka 7-6 (7/4), 6-3 to set up a showdown with Olympic champion Zheng Qinwen in the final of the WTA Finals, while in the doubles, Taiwan’s Chan Hao-ching was eliminated. Gauff generated six break points to Belarusian Sabalenka’s four and built on early momentum in the opening set’s tiebreak that she carried through to the second set. She is the youngest player at 20 to make the final at the WTA Finals since Denmark’s Caroline Wozniacki in 2010. Zheng earlier defeated Wimbledon champion Barbora Krejcikova of the Czech Republic 6-3, 7-5 to book
RSS