We knew it was going to be hard.  I mean, this one was always going to be a fight, but we didn't expect it to be this ugly.  No matter how much I go on about the match, there is only one thing I can think of, one thing that drove me insane.  The behavior of the Henan players during the last 15 minutes of the match was downright disgraceful, if the CSL disciplinary commision wants to go back and retroactively punish players for fouls, why not punish teams for embarassing themselves?  But I digress...

It was great to see Yang Zhi wasn't hurt too seriously by the heinous Tan Wansong and was able to get between the pipes for this very important clash. Yang's a warrior, he, Xu Yunlong, and Matic have been iron men this year, always up for the match no matter what, and he definitely was up for this one, making all the needed saves. 

That said, he didn't need to make many saves as Guoan's defense was as stellar as its been all year.  Paul, who had some problems earlier on in the year, was a rock in the center of defense and shut down Henan's solid attack.  Zhang Xinxin's a great wing back, the energizer bunny going up and down the left wing, and he's skilled enough to beat defenders when attacking.  Xu Yunlong is Xu Yunlong, enough said there.  The only minor problem is Zhang Yonghai, whose passing and general play could have been better, but fortunately it never cost us during this match.

The lineup was the same as last week, though Yan Xiangchuang was plugged in for Du Wenhui (more on that later).  From the get go, Guoan absolutely controlled the match, basically the entire 1st half was played in the H  阅读全文>>