There's never a dull moment watching mercurial Guo'an

For the low price of around $20, Beijing Guo'an FC will sell you a whole seat, but you'll only use the edge of it.

Such is the chaotically compelling nature of soccer in the Chinese Super League — or more specifically, at Beijing Workers' Stadium, where the men in the green and gold of the nation's capital club ply their trade — that you will spend pretty much the whole game perched precariously between sitting and standing, always ready to spring to your feet, either in celebration of a goal or to remonstrate over a characteristically woeful defensive lapse.

And, what's equal parts frustrating and utterly thrilling, is that there is, more often than not, an abundance of both.

My toxic tryst with Chinese footballing calamity began back in March 2019, on a chilly Beijing night spent in the brutalist concrete embrace of the original Workers' Stadium (or gongti, as it's known locally).

That iteration was open to the elements; an unenclosed bowl, around which a cutting, icy wind swirled.

I was invited by my friend Xinjiu to watch Guo'an play out a 0-0 draw with Japanese side Urawa Red Diamonds in a top-tier Asian Champions League match, in which the home side enjoyed the better chances, but a frustratingly obvious lack of quality ensured the net remained disappointingly un-bulged.

Not that we'd have noticed even if they had scored. We were sitting in the lower deck behind one of the goals, with the threadbare pitch so far away thanks to the running track around its perimeter, it could well have been in another district.

Glutton for sporting punishment that I am, though (I'm a Swansea City fan, after all), I was hooked. As much by the club's punk rock reputation and the energy of its "ultras", as the sport.

Sadly, COVID stymied my burgeoning affair with Guo'an, but in the past few seasons, it has been rekindled, and I have tried to attend as many home matches at the new, and vastly improved, gongti as my nerves will allow.

I have been fortunate to enjoy an unbeaten in-person run, stretching back to that cold night in 2019, having never seen Guo'an lose. At least, until Sept 21, when the streak was snapped with an overly flattering 3-2 loss to bitter rival and current league leader Shanghai Port.

As devastating as that defeat was, and the nature of it — Guo'an being completely outplayed from pillar to post — I decided I needed to get back on the horse quickly, before apathy set in, especially in the wake of a string of depressing results on the road.

So, with trepidation I climbed back aboard the emotional roller coaster for Beijing's match against Dalian Yingbo on Friday.

And what a ride it was.

The late, great Scottish soccer manager Bill Shankly, it is famously claimed, quipped about opponents taking on his unplayable Liverpool sides of the 1960s and '70s: "Let them score, we'll just score more."

It's a philosophy that also seemed to be adopted by the all-conquering Brazilian sides of the same period.

Those teams, of course, were brimful of generational talent — the likes of Jairzinho, Pele, John Toshack and Kevin Keegan, among a litany of others.

Beijing Guo'an, however, is not.

It does have its Angolan superhero Fabio Abreu, who's accounted for just shy of half the side's entire league tally for the season so far, and can count Chinese internationals, such as the naturalized Brazilian Serginho and Wang Ziming, among its forward ranks.

Sadly though, it has a backline with more leaks than a Julian Assange blog post and a goalkeeper that sometimes forgets a; that he has hands, and b; that he's not an outfield player.

This has led to Guo'an conceding a hatful of comedically slapstick goals this term, but — in the spirit of Shankly — still manage to balance the books at the other end with some, at times, quite sublime soccer.

Never was this more the case than on Friday, when, comfortably three goals up thanks to a quickfire pair of pearlers from Fabio and Serginho late in the first half, and another from the Angolan shortly after halftime, Guo'an conceded two goals in the space of one absolutely mad minute.

Barely five minutes after that, there was more drama, when Dalian, threatening to pull level thanks to more diabolical defending, hit the crossbar, before Fabio was denied his hat-trick at the other end by VAR.

It came eventually in the 78th, but, given Guo'an has a tendency toward soul-crushing backline blunders, the two-goal cushion still didn't allow anyone in the green end of the ground to enjoy the whole of their seats, nor breathe any more easily for the last 15 minutes.

Prevail Guo'an did, though, and the in-person winning streak has reset back to one, with an ACL2 match against Macarthur FC to come this week. Hopefully coach Quique Setien will not underestimate the nuggety Aussie side, like he did Cong An Hanoi in a, quite literally, hard-fought first-round draw a fortnight ago.

Guo'an is still in the running for the league title, too, with a four-way race in full swing as we head into the last five games of the season. Six points separate Guo'an from repeating the glory of 2009, the one time it topped the league in its current form.

Even if Guo'an wins every game, it's unlikely, but, mathematically, it is still possible.

And if I've learned anything from watching soccer in China, it's that just a hint of promise, any fleeting hope, is more than enough to ensure that fans show up in their thousands to shout, sing and curse in unison — even if it means being on the edge of their seats until the very final whistle.

mccarthy@chinadaily.com.cn