What looked on paper to be a boring Chinese Super League weekend where the top sides would roll to victories turned into an upset packed weekend where anything could happen. Saturday started things off with three surprise victories, and while there were fewer goals on Sunday, the action was no less exciting.
Changchun Yatai 0-0 Qingdao Jonoon
Attendance: 10,318
Changchun’s been drawing a lot lately and failed to get a goal against a struggling Qingdao team.
Shandong Luneng 1-2 Hangzhou Greentown
Attendance: 15,612
Hangzhou manager Okada’s having a tough time by the West Lake, but his side went to Jinan and left with all three points as well as goal of the week for Fabricio, a wonderful, individual effort.
Guizhou Renhe 3-1 Jiangsu Sainty
Attendance: 22,111
Guizhou’s three foreigners combine for three great goals as they hand the Nanjingers their first defeat of the 2012 season.
Shanghai Shenxin 4-2 Guangzhou R&F
Attendance: 10,051
What’s going on with Shenxin? They look to be a thoroughly average side, but they’ve proven more than once that they are capable of scoring at will from time to time. A big upset as they took down R&F, though with Jiangsu losing as well, not much changed at the top of the table.
Dalian Shide 4-1 Tianjin Teda
Attendance: 6,158
In his 101st game for Dalian, James Chamanga has a big match and the northern seasiders put together a big performance against Tianjin, whose problems continue.
Liaoning Whowin 1-1 Shanghai Shenhua
Attendance: 23,167
China’s top striker, Yang Xu, gets a late equalizer to prevent Shenhua from earning a much needed three points. Read our Shenhua match report here.
Henan Construction 2-2 Beijing Guoan
Attendance: 20,192
It was a decent back-and-forth tussle in Zhengzhou, read our full report here.
Guangzhou Evergrande 2-1 Dalian Aerbin
Attendance: 32,468
Last year’s champions just keep cruising, this time taking down cellar dwellers Aerbin, who made a good showing of it and almost managed to pull out a point. Of far greater concern for Guangzhou is that Muriqui went down injured and will be out for at least three weeks.
Some cracking goals this week. Everyone outside the top 5 is probably still looking over their shoulders a bit — almost a third of the way through the season, and the bottom half of the table is only covered by three points. Arebin and Qingdao *should* still be favorites to go down, but it’d be nice to go on a bit of a run and pull further clear.
There needs to be an equivalent to Saint Totteringham’s Day that Shenxin fans can celebrate when they finish above Shenhua!