View From Gongti: Beijing Guoan 3-0 Shanghai Shenhua

Last night’s “China Derby”, the twice yearly battle between Beijing Guoan and Shanghai Shenhua, was yet another fine match in a long line of classics. Guoan finally got themselves back on track with an important 3-0 victory in front of over 50,000 at Worker’s Stadium, breaking their streak of four straight 1-1 draws.

Beijing went up by one before many fans made it to their seats, the goal coming off a beautiful give and go between Joel Griffiths and Wang Xiaolong, with the Aussie finishing through the keeper’s legs. Shenhua almost equalized moments later, but their foreign striker just missed the mark. Guoan doubled their tally after Lei Tenglong knocked in a rebound, the youngster was making his first team home debut, the goal a fine start to his career.

Guoan maintained the pressure in the second half, as a Wang Xiaolong run led to a penalty kick. Wang took it himself, stepped up and finished with ease to put the home side up 3-0. To top off his night, Wang was involved in an incident with Shanghai captain Dai Lin, and both players were shown red.

At the season’s halfway mark, the Beijingers find themselves in 2nd place, 7 points behind big spending Guangzhou. It’s a short week for Guoan as they prepare for a home tilt against Jiangsu Sainty this Sunday night.

Read Brandon's full match report at China's premier soccer blog, Wild East Football.