Guoan Hold Grampus to Tame Draw

Nagoya Grampus and Beijing Guoan battled to a tame draw at Mizuho Stadium last night. A result that sees Beijing join Nagoya at the top of the Group E table with four points from two games. Newcastle Jets' win over Ulsan sees them in second place, one point back, and makes the next game in Nagoya crucial for both teams.

This game saw Grampus start brightly, and they did manage to create several chances in the first half, but Beijing were able to hold out for 0-0 score-line at half time. The second half was a more even affair and the Chinese team almost capitalized on a couple of defensive errors. Although both teams looked good at times, both lacked the creativity and sharpness needed to convert their periods of control into goals.

This game highlighted Nagoya's lack of creativity in midfield if Magnum and/or Nakamura are missing. Although both made an appearance in the second half, they were unable to alter the course of the game. Sugimoto was anonymous and Ogawa has yet to find the form he showed last year. Both can do better than last night's performance, and despite failing to impress so far this season are likely to become more influential as the season progresses.

Grampus
Seigo Narazaki
Hayuma Tanaka, Maya Yoshida, Takahiro Masukawa, Shohei Abe
Keita Sugimoto, Kei Yamaguchi, Keiji Yoshimura (Magnum HT), Yoshizumi Ogawa (Yuki Maki 82)
Keiji Tamada (Naoshi Nakamura 74), Davi

Beijing
Yang Zhi
Zhou Ting, Xu Yun Long, Modibo, Darko
Wang Chang Qing, Tao Wei, Huang Bo Wen, Lu Jiang
Ryan, Joel