Beijing crush Qingdao to advancto to cup quarterfinals

After the weekend’s struggles in Shanghai, Beijing Guoan were at home last night against Qingdao Jonoon in the CFA Cup and the home side won convincingly against the seasiders. It was an all-around impressive performance, particularly from the club’s two newest signings, Freddie Kanoute and Joffre Guerron, who were starting at home for the first time.

Qingdao, currently sitting in the relegation zone and facing a big weekend clash against Dalian Shide, decided to keep its foreign players out of the starting XI. Instead they played a lineup featuring a couple younger players who weren’t ready for Guoan’s juggernaut. The Beijingers kept their first choice keeper on the bench, along with resting Zhang Xinxin and Xu Liang. In their places started youngsters Xu Wu and Zhang Xizhe, respectively.

Kanoute threatened right from the start, but if anyone thought his chance that went just wide in the opening minutes would lead to another long day like in Shanghai, there were very mistaken. Kanoute followed up that close call in the 2nd minute by getting on the board a moment later, his first goal for Guoan. It was a simple goal, Wang Xiaolong played in an easy cross and Kanoute placed his header perfectly.

Wang kept the next one for himself, a corner kick wasn’t cleared and Piao Cheng passed to him just outside the box, Wang’s beautiful chip beat the keeper and made it 2-0. The clock hadn’t even reached the 15 minute mark yet. Four minutes later it was Guerron’s turn to score his first goal for Guoan, a beautiful bicycle kick that is sure to be one of the best goals Guoan scores this year.

On the next buildup down the pitch, Piao was violently taken down in the box, giving Guoan a penalty kick. Wang stepped up and buried it to make it 4-0 and the match was little more than 20 minutes old. Kanoute would be the next to score his second goal of the night, in the 34th minute a good ball was played into the box, Zhang Xizhe (yes, Zhang did something useful) tapped it on to Kanoute, who showed excellent possession skills, keeping it away from the keeper and tapping it in.

The first half came to an end with Qingdao not taking a shot on goal and Guoan having scored five times, a number that could have very easily been much closer to double digits. Guoan manager Jaime Pacheco started taking off Guoan’s stars of the night, including Wang and Kanoute, as fans started thinking about who the next opponent would be.

The scoring wasn’t over just yet. One of the youngsters who came on, Wang Hao, took a long shot that hit a Qingdao defender and went in for the sixth and final goal of the night. It was a dominant performance by the Men in Green and it gives a lot of hope for what the combo of Kanoute and Guerron (as well as Wang and Piao) might be able to do to CSL opposition. There was a bit of bad news on the night, with Guerron suffering a minor injury, but it shouldn’t keep him out of the lineup this weekend.

Guoan’s next opponent in the cup will be Guizhou Renhe, who defeated Dalian Shide 2-0 today.