View From Gongti: Beijing Guoan 2-1 Jiangsu Sainty

Beijing Guoan’s unbeaten streak reached 13 games last night as Xu Liang’s pair of goals led the capital side to a 2-1 victory over Jiangsu Sainty. It was another night of quality football in front of a very passionate Workers' Stadium crowd. "Passionate" can be taken literally: Gongti has become a popular destination to propose, with at least three proposals in the stands last night.

Due to an early injury to speedy winger Walter Martinez, new signing Keita made his debut appearance in Guoan’s “watermelon skin” kit early in the first half. The tall Senegalese striker showed his talent early, just missing after a creative run. He also won a free kick in the dying moments of the half that would lead to Guoan’s opening goal. Xu Liang stepped up to take the kick and scored off a beautiful bending shot. There’s a reason he’s known as China’s Beckham.

After a string of bad luck with the referees, Guoan’s luck has changed as of late. Last night affirmed that when Joel Griffiths was shouldered down in the box and Guoan was awarded a penalty. Xu’s struggled on penalties, but this time he buried it to put the home side up by two. When Jiangsu got one back late in the half, it didn’t matter as an equalizer was never on the cards.

See Guoan as they try to continue their winning ways in their next home match against the league’s top side Guangzhou Evergrande (and their USD 10 million player) on July 30 at the Workers' Stadium.

Read Brandon's full match report at WildEastFootball.