View From Gongti: Beijing Guoan 3-0 Henan Construction

Beijing Guoan crushed opponents Henan Construction 3-0 in front of a very lively crowd of 38,000 supporters at Worker’s Stadium Saturday [Sep 24] night. It was a night for the supporters, and some of the players said so much, a bit of revenge for the long night the fans experienced in Zhengzhou four months ago (more on that here).

Manager Jamie Pacheco made only a few slight changes from the midweek lineup; one was Walter Martinez coming on for Ladji Keita and made an instant impact coming close to scoring twice before finally heading in a Wang Xiaolong cross in the 20th minute.

Henan failed to mount much of a challenge. Guoan’s midseason signing Francois Sene had a bang up performance in the defense, shutting down Henan’s attacks time after time. Joel Griffiths also had a massive performance, scoring a goal and setting up another. He scored the 2nd, the goal coming off a corner, the Henan defender knocking the ball directly in Griffiths path and he banged it home.

The third goal, a Griffiths cross to Xu Liang, was icing on the cake. Xu celebrated it in front of a delirious north stand with his typical salute. Once again it was a 3-0 victory at Gongti, now it’s an almost month long break for National Day and an international match before Guoan return in action at Gongti against Changchun on October 15.

Read Brandon's full match report at WildEastFootball.