That was very poor from South China. It is deflating to lose that game. Maybe the lack of official matches hurted the team more than helped them. Goalkeeper Mora was an embarrassment. Does South China really need a foreign goalkeeper? We have local goalkeepers that would perform better than Mora did. Wallace Cheung needs to re-think his foreign players strategy.
South China obviously wasted 1 FP and 1 AP quota on Mora and Boima in the Quarter Final. If they registered Lucas Espindola/Luiz Carlos as FP and Nakamura Yuto/signing Andrew Barisić as AP, the result might be different.
Kitchee 1-1 Kuwait Sc Pahang 3-1 Istiklol Semifinals : Kuwait SC vs Istiklol , Darul Taksim vs Qadisiya
South China Morning Post Impossible task: Kitchee draw 1-1 with Al Kuwait but lose 7-1 on aggregate in AFC Cup quarter-final First leg loss gave local team too tough a hurdle to overcome when they hosted vistors in second leg at Mong Kok Chan Kin-wa Kitchee failed to recover from a first leg deficit as they managed a 1-1 draw against visiting Al Kuwait in the AFC Cup quarter-finals at Mong Kok Stadium last night, losing 7-1 on aggregate. After losing 6-0 in Kuwait City last month, the home side needed to at least equal that score to stand any chance of progressing. Paulo Carreiro, who is likely to become the latest naturalised player for Hong Kong, gave the hosts some early delight with a goal on nine minutes. But Kitchee still needed six more to reach the next round after losing 6-0 in the away leg to the Kuwait side last month. Their hopes were dashed after Fahad Al-Hajeri levelled the score five minutes after the break, forcing Kitchee to follow South China's exit from the AFC Cup.</a> The Caroliners were beaten 3-1 by Malaysian side Johor Darul Tazim in an earlier last-eight tie on Tuesday at Mong Kok Stadium, with an aggregate score of 4-2.
Kitchee was never going to overcome the 6-0 deficit. It was good that 1,390 fans still turned up. In my opinion, Kitchee really need to get a coach who will remain with the club for a long period of time, as Josep Gombau did, so that they can maintain their style.
Seems we're about to see another all-Kuwaiti final. I think that they (Kuwait) deserve direct ACL spot, they surely outgrown this competition. Another question - why is there so low attendance at their club games? Only few hundreds or thousands.
The Kuwaiti clubs are stuck in an awkward position where they're too good for the AFC Cup, but not quite good enough for the Champions League. We saw AFC mixing things up a bit in the international scene by allowing all their nations a fairer representation in World Cup/Asian Cup qualifiers. I'm guessing it's going to take a few more years for that to happen in the club competitions.
the best thing to do is to let the 3rd place finsher on groub stages on the acl join the afc cup in another round of 16
Following the decision by FIFA to suspend the Kuwait Football Association and its members from all football activities Kuwait SC and Qadsia SC are no longer eligible to compete in the AFC Cup semi-finals. The AFC Cup final therefore will now be between Johor Darul Ta'zim of Malaysia and FC Istiklol of Tajikistan. The final will be played on October 31 in Dushanbe in Tajikistan. http://www.the-afc.com/media-releases/fifa-suspension-of-kuwait-fa-implications-to-afc-cup
What an opportunity for Istiklol in their debut campaign! Of course, the manner in which both they and Johor made it to the final is not ideal. Nevertheless, it's a great for both teams considering the financial incentives, and I expect both to be dominant in their respective domestic leagues for the next few years at least.
Istiqlol - Johor 0-1 It took 12 seasons of this competition to see East Asia team taking part in final and they won it immediately. Leandro Velazquez scored the winning goal for Malaysian team. Congrats to all Malaysian football fans!
Finally something good for Malaysian football. Johor DT will also gain entry into the AFC Champions League qualifying play-off I assume. South China must be kicking themselves repeatedly...