Hangzhou happy in the rain

Hangzhou Greentown 3-1 Guangzhou R&F
CSL Round 2

On a wet night at the Huanglong stadium Hangzhou Greentown had three different scorers as they beat Guangzhou R&F 3-1. R&F had possession but struggled to create any clear chances, Yakubu scoring from perhaps the only one.

After their 4-2 home loss last week to Liaoning, R&F hit the road still without injured centre midfielder Li Yan so Zhang Yaokun was once again played out of position, this time at left back with Wu Weian brought into central midfield . Hangzhou meanwhile were playing at home for the second week in a row and were looking to go one better than their opening day draw with Changchun.

They got off to the best possible start as captain Wang Song scored after just ninety seconds. New signing Davy Claude Angan’s footwork troubled Tang Miao who slipped over and so allowed the Ivorian past him. Angan’s pulled it back to Gao Di but his shot looped into the air after a Xu Bo deflection and keeper Cheng Yuelei, recovering after a slip of his own, could only flap at the ball which fell to a grateful Wang to hammer home.

Hangzhou had no problems in the rain but R&F players were continually slipping over; Xu Bo’s tumbled allowed Mazola to cross for Angan but his header went wide. A little later Tang Miao recovered well to block Wang Song’s cross with attackers waiting in the middle.

Greentown doubled their lead just after the half hour when Zhang Yaokun was caught out by Wang Lin’s run. Lin crossed and Gao Di just beat defender Tang Miao to the cross to touch it in.

Up to this point the Cantonese side had created little in reply and a strong run from Yakubu looked set to be their best moment of the half until the 44^th minute. Zhang Yuan ran onto a through ball and his cross allowed R&F captain Yakubu to slide in at the far post for a goal R&F scarcely deserved.

Greentown’s Japanese manager Takeshi Okada probably said words to this effect at half-time as his side came out and re-established their two goal cushion after 52 minutes. R&F failed to properly clear a corner and Wang Song’s cross was met by a diving header from defender Cao Xuan to make it 3-1 to Hangzhou.

In the opposite dugout to Okada, Brazilian coach Sergio Farias, although he spent most of the match out of his dugout and getting as wet as his players, used all three substitutions but to little avail. Keeper Jiang Bo did well to dive at the feet of an onrushing Yakubu who was judged to have fouled Jiang anyway.  The Cantonese side had plenty of crossing chances, often created by right back Tang Miao, but these were almost all wasted and didn’t lead to any efforts on target. The Hangzhou defence were well organised and despite their endeavours the closest R&F came to scoring in the second half was when Jiang had to scramble to his right to prevent an own goal.

Hangzhou can be very happy with their performance as they looked solid at the back and Mazola in particular caused the R&F defence quite a few problems. R&F will welcome the international break as a chance to regroup after two straight defeats and also hope that some of their first choice central midfielders can recover from injury before the game with Shandong.