Round 23 of the China Football Association Super League (CSL) was played on the 16th and 17th. Leaders BEIJING GUOAN played 2007 champions CHANGCHUN YATAI. They lost 0-2 to drop from the top of the league. It was tied 0-0 until the 56th minute when substitute FW Branimir SUBASIC went down in the penalty area to earn a PK. China PR national team FW CAO Tianbao put the penalty into to the top left corner with his right foot to open the scoring. Then in the 84th minute CHANGCHUN added another to cap a comfortable 2-0 win. They move up into 4th place.

In a top of the table clash between 2nd placed SHANDONG LUNENG and 3rd placed HENAN CONSTRUCTION, HENAN former Poland national team FW Emmanuel OLISADEBE picked up the ball in the box in the 21st minute and shot powerfully with his left foot to open the scoring. In the 31st minute a SHANDONG left sided cross to the far post MF LU Zheng who volleyed it first time with his right foot to equalize. However in the 56th minute HENAN China PR national team FW XU Yang headed in a right sided cross to score the winning goal. HENAN recapture the lead for the first time since three rounds ago.
4th placed TIANJIN TEDA lost 0-1 to SHAANXI ZHONGXIN. They have now fallen a step behind in the battle for the league.

The other CSL Round 23 match results are as below:
CHONGQING LIFAN postponed SHENZHEN
GUANGZHOU PHARMACEUTICAL １-２ CHENGDU BLADES
DALIAN SHIDE １-０ JIANGSU SAINTY
QINGDAO JONOON ２-１ SHANGHAI SHENHUA
HANGZHOU GREENTOWN １-１ CHANGSHA GINDE

The main standings as of September 17th are as follows. Brackets indicate points and the number after that is goal difference.
1 HENAN CONSTRUCTION (38)+8
2 BEIJING GUOAN (36)+12
3 SHANDONG LUNENG (36)+5
4 CHANGCHUN YATAI (36)+2
5 TIANJIN TEDA (34)+9