Kickoff (Cape Town)
2 December 2008
Former Moroka Swallows striker James Chamanga has completed a near disastrous debut season at Chinese Super League club Dalian Shide, surviving relegation on the last day of the season on Sunday as the club completed its worst ever season.
Chamanga's club only confirmed their survival after fellow Liaoning FC also lost on the last day to Changsha Ginde.
Dalian Shide had already also run out 5-3 losers to Tianjin Teda earlier on in the day and their fate rested on the result of Liaoning.
With the results on the last day, Shide finished on 30 points occupying the last spot above the drop zone while Liaoning on 27 points were demoted to the Chinese League along with walk-over team Wuhan Guanggu.
Two teams out of the 16 in the Super League are relegated at the end of every season in China.
While Chamanga's team avoided the chop, he also found it difficult to score regularly finishing the season with just four strikes.
So tough was the season for Chamanga after being forced to play wide on the right that he only scored his first goal in his 10th match for the club on September 15, in the 2-1 loss to Qingdao Jonoon having made his debut on May 17 against Shaanxi Zhongxin.
With only four goals all season - a stark contrast with the five that he scored in one game against Platinum Stars in the PSL last season - he finished the club's second top scorer behind Bulgarian Georgi Chilikov, who scored five.
Though Dalian are China's most successful club with eight league titles to date, the past season in which they finished 14th was the worst ever.
Chamanga recently told KickOff.com that they struggled because they had many new players in the squad.
"When I arrived here players from last season had left because the club struggled with sponsorship and this season we had many new players. We have only been scoring through set-pieces this season," he said.
Last season Chamanga scored 14 goals in 20 matches for Moroka Swallows.
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