Victory!
Yes, this is how I feel right now, Guoan has finally gotten back to their winning ways, though they've yet to lose yet, its been over 3 weeks since their last win. This one was extremely watchable and showed football how it should be played.
There were lots of changes for this game, so let's look at the lineup:
Goalie - Yang Zhi
Defense - Zhou Ting, Xu Yunlong, Zhang Yonghai, Lu Jiang
Midfield - Du Wenhui, Matic, Tao Wei, Yang Hao, Martinez
Forward - Joel Griffiths
That means a ton of changes in the midfield, basically an entire overhaul with the exception of holding mid Matic, changing out Wang Changqing, Ryan Griffiths, and Huang Bowen. I don't know what Lee Jangsoo said to the team in the change room, but this was a totally different Guoan squad, taking the match directly to Chengdu right from the start. Griffiths had an early chance that was created purely by hustle, something that had been lacking in the team, but things got good a short while later when Du Wenhui scored a nice goal off a great run and cross from Martinez. That was the highlight of the half, both sides had a few good chances and Beijing's defense still didn't look solid (namely Zhang), but Yang Zhi was up for the few 1st half challenges he faced.
Going into the half up 1-nil was a nice feeling, but the way the team's played this year, I was still fairly nervous about the result, could we hold them off? The nerves quickly went away early in the 2nd half, a questionable offside call against Griffiths had me angered, but moments later, Guoan was given a free kick deep in the Chengdu end (almost by the corner flag). Tao Wei's great delivery was met by a Yang Hao header, knocking the ball deeper in the box for a sliding Griffiths who buried it, making it 2-nil and offering a nice insurance goal. Griffiths was almost able to make it 3 in the 87th minute, but couldn't get the shot off in time and was foiled by Chengdu's large keeper. The only other thing to note was Wang Ke's season debut, coming on for Martinez in the 90th minute.
Huang Bowen is one of my favorites among the current crop of Guoan players, I was there for his first goal as a 16 year old in 2004 and his rocket shots at that age showed a lot of promise, I thought he could be the future of Chinese football. He's still young, only 21 now, and going into his 6th CSL season, but he just hasn't matured to match all the previous expectations fans had for him. It's been obvious in the past few games that he's had problems figuring out how to work with Martinez and the other midfielders and hashing out what his role should be.
Switching Huang and Tao doesn't lose you very much. While Tao is more attacking, he's also very creative, and Matic has shown himself capable of being a solid defensive mid. At the same time, Martinez looked to be revitalized, and was more dangerous than ever before this year, going up and down the wing. Yang Hao was a breath of fresh air, as well, in his first game in the squad this year.
There was some talk about Lee's job security in the run-up to this match, this is simply outrageous. He's brought the team to within a point of a league title and, even if the team didn't get off to a great start, they're still undefeated in the league, currently sitting in 3rd, and also in a great position to advance in the Champions League.
The fans and media are putting too much pressure and too many expectations on this side, this is exhibit A in the case against them. Lee's one of the better CSL managers and one game, or even a few poor outings, isn't enough to condemn him, we need to show more loyalty. We need to have more faith in Lee, his decisions in this match paid off, and he's the man that can take us farthest.
That's that, I hope I don't need to be talking about that anymore this year. A great win, back to winning ways, still undefeated in the league, and have a big weekend clash against Shandong coming up, who is travelling to Jinan?
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