March 20th: Beijing Guoan vs. Brisbane Roar FC 4:30am PACIFIC TIME. March 21st: Seongnam Ilhwa vs. Tianjin Teda 3:00am PACIFIC TIME. Guangzhou Evergrande vs. Buriram United 5:00am PACIFIC TIME. PLEASE DOUBLE CHECK ALL TIME - I MIGHT BE WRONG DUE TO DAYLIGHT SAVING.
hmm was gonna watch guoan but i have stuff to do in the morning. thhey havent been playing like the 2nd place csl team so far. maybe fuli is just good because they beat both guoan and hengda....hope shenhua can at least take 3 points away from them next weekend
Roar started off this season's A-League with a hiss (and a roar!) and were the form team. Then went to sleep midway through but are starting to regain their mojo. I'm hoping that Guoan's win over Shenhua will kick start their ACL run as well and they deal to Roar at Gongti.
guoan 1 - 1 brisbane watched the last 20 min of the game. guoan had the possession, didn't do too much with it.
Around 150 or so, including some hardy souls who took a 14 hour hard-seat ride north on thursday night....
My commiserations to you! Years ago I took hard-seat overnight from Beijing to Shandong, Tai'an (to visit Taishan). Very "character building"! The hostel (for locals) I stayed at was also hard-seat-esque, but at least there was a bed to lie down on...
My arse is still sore from that incredibly long journey, we did demolish around 30 beers and some baijiu between 5 of us in about two hours though. The only downside of that was regular visits to the horrible hard seat toilets. Arrgh. Took the gaotie back on Sunday afternoon. Something of a contrast to say the least.
Guangzhou Evergrande vs. Buriram http://www.firstrowsports.eu/watch/114540/1/watch-guangzhou-f.c-vs-buriram-united-fc.html showing NOW.
Zheng Zhi saved Guangzhou's ass by blocking the goal-bound shot when the Buriram foreign striker dribble past the keeper GE 0-0 Buriram.
Cleo equalise with a header assisted by Muriqui in the 69th minute. Buriram had taken the lead with a penalty in the 62nd min.
Once again another Chinese team dissapoints, Wow Guangzhou were truely crap, I gotta admit I only caught the second half but from what I saw none of them looked bothered, last season Guangzhou never gave up, however in this game it looked like they didn't even turn up. This game Guangzhou weren't unlucky or anything, there wasn't a wonder goal and then Buriram sat back, Buriram had a plan which was to stop Conca from playing and hit Guangzhou on the counter-attack. However Guangzhou should have been ready for that but they weren't, their right-back (if there was one) got exposed every single time, I didn't see Zhang Linpeng what happened to him? The midfield on the other hand was non-existent, I mean I've never actually seen a game where a there was a goal kick and nobody was in the centre circle, however what made their performance worst was when the team reverted to the crossing game there was nobody in the box to help out the strikers. However the most condemning thing I saw throughout the game was when Buriram attacked they constantly outnumbered the Guangzhou players, which meant that no one was helpping the defence and that shows a lack of commitment which is truely disgusting.
This Thai team is certainly surprising on the upside. First Kashiwa, and now Guangzhou, falling victim to it.
The huge let-down after winning the CSL and then the 5-1 victory is still in full effect. Shock therapy may be needed.
the thai played well strong teamwork and the uzbek player really disrupted evergrande's attack well. evergrande's shots were off by miles, and the buriram keeper blocked most of the shots well.
The only vid i found, its a bit blurry but heres Huang´s goal: [ame="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gqnrJU9qu3o&feature=related"]Kashiwa Reysol 3-1 Jeonbuk Hyundai Motors - Huang Bowen - YouTube[/ame]
Too many people took this Thai team as a joke, but this is the group of death for a reason and they are a serious club and proved that already against Kashiwa. I also think Kashiwa's result against Jeonbuk show that they aren't as strong as everyone was expecting, or at least aren't focused on this tournament right now. Zhang Linpeng was taken off around the 40th minute because he was being embarassed by the Thai winger who was making runs and going around him pretty much at will. Guangzhou had an off night, that's bound to happen, but a lot of it stemmed from the Thais shutting down Conca, the offense flows through him and pretty much only through him, if he can be neutralized, the team is pretty much done for, except if Muriqui can somehow make an amazing play. A few CSL teams have been able to shut down Conca, but not many. I think anybody expecting Guangzhou to cruise to the CSL title and the ACL was fooling themselves. Part of it is due to a letdown after last year, but the club's ability to remain undefeated for so long last year had a lot to do with luck, sometimes the stars align for a club, this season is going to be a lot harder for them.