HK Senior Challenge Shield semi-final 1 Wofoo Tai Po 1:2 Kitchee HK Senior Challenge Shield semi-final 2 Eastern Longlions 1:0 Kwun Chung Southern District Kitchee will play Eastern Longlions on 15 Jan for the Senior Challenge Shield
Former Koraen International player Kim Don-Jin has taken part in the first training session for Kitchee. He is confident Kitchee can beat Hanoi T&T in the ACL preliminary stage. Coach Chu Chi-Kwong said obviously Kim is very experienced, but will observe him for a while before deciding on the which foreign players to list in the ACL preliminaries. In addition, Emmet Wan has returned to Kitchee from Hong Kong Pegasus. Chu said he needs as many good local players as he can get for the ACL preliminaries.
Itaparica has joined Wofoo Tai Po. He said he wants to help the young players at the club. He will also fight for the chance to play in the Asian Cup qualifiers for Hong Kong.
Guangdong-HK Cup second leg Hong Kong 1:1 Guangdong Hong Kong B team played very well and scored first. But a dubious freekick for Guangdong allowed them to equalize and win 4-3 over two legs. Next year it will be the 40th edition of this trophy and I hope they find a way to change the format a little. Maybe invite Macau and Chinese Taipei to form a 4 teams tournament?
Hong Kong is negotiating with Real Madrid about playing an exhibition match in Hong Kong in August this year to celebrate the 20th anniversary of the SAR's return to China.
2017 Lunary New Year Cup 28 Jan: Australia U23 vs Seoul FC; Kitchee vs Muangthong United 31 Jan: 3rd place match and final. Tickets will be available from www.cityline.com
South China is falling further and further behind in the title race. Eastern's only challenge is Kitchee, but they will have a very busy January and could slip up. Kitchee plays Eastern on 15 Jan in the Senior Challenge Shield final; 18 Jan Wofoo Tai Po plays Kitchee in Sapling Cup; 21 Jan Kwun Chung Southern District hosts Kitchee in the league; 25 Jan Kitchee plays Hanoi T&T in the ACL qualifier, then 28 and 31 Jan Kitchee plays in the Lunar New Year Cup; 4 Feb Kitchee hosts Hong Kong Pegasus FC; if they progress in the ACL then they will play Jeju United on 7 Feb. That's a very, very demanding schedule for any club. I am sure Kitchee can't win all of it.
South China defender Andy Russell is leaving the club to join Penang in Malaysia. There was a sending off ceremony for him yesterday. South China promptly lost 0-1 to Southern District.
HKPL Wofoo Tai Po 3:0 Lee Man Rangers Biu Chun GlorySky 2:3 KMB Yuen Long Good to see the district clubs winning.
HKPL Kitchee 5:0 R&F Guangzhou. Two goals for Sandro. Next week Kitchee vs Eastern in the Hong Kong Stadium for the Senior Challenge Shield. Hopefully we get a 6,000+ crowd to prove once again that Hong Kong Stadium is not unpopular compared with Mongkok Stadium.
Biu Chun GlorySky captain Yeung Chi Lun joins Hong Kong Pegasus after defeat by KMB Yuen Long. He performed well in the Guangdong-HK Cup and caught the eye of Hong Kong Pegasus, who is short on players. Lee Ngai-Hai, a Kitchee defender, also will join Hong Kong Pegasus on loan.
South China striker Chan Siu-Ki would like to leave the club and join Hong Kong Pegasus. He has only 0.5 year left on his contract, but South China would like to receive $1 million plus transfer fee for him. Hong Kong Pegasus said they will try to continue to negotiate with South China.
Australia U23's withdraw from the Lunar Year Cup, two weeks before the start of the tournament. http://www.foxsports.com.au/footbal...t/news-story/452c4e38a6b6e53f7e1d50f0b9919edf I suppose it gives a local club the chance to replace them.
Senior Challenge Shield final Kitchee 2-1 Eastern Longlions Despite the light rain and very cool weather, 6,200 attended the match. Lam Zhi-Gin and Jared Lum scored for Kitchee while Miroslav Saric equalized for Eastern. I am so glad Kitchee won this match. They suffered from Eastern's off the field moves in the ACL issues this season. It is a great way to get a little revenge.
If they replace Australian U23 with a local club/team then they have to lower the ticket prices. That will involve a lot of work with the Hong Kong Stadium. I think they will want to avoid that. Previously New York City FC had been approached, maybe they could talk to them again.
South China Morning Post Reality check: Eastern coach Chan Yuen-ting suffers defeat in Senior Shield final World-famous coach didn’t have it her way this time as Kitchee break the jinx and lift the first domestic trophy of the season for the first time in more than a decade Chan Kin-wa The honeymoon is over – at least for now – for Hong Kong’s world-famous woman’s coach Chan Yuen-ting who was brought down to earth in Sunday’s Senior Shield final. Looking for her third major trophy since her surprise appointment as Eastern coach in December 2015, the darling of the Hong Kong Premier League received a reality check after her side suffered a 2-1 loss to arch rivals Kitchee. Eastern, the two-time defending Shield champions, had carried much hope that they would help their star coach win the first domestic silverware of the season and start 2017 off with a bang at Hong Kong Stadium. But the 28-year-old Chan – the first female in the world to lead a club to a top-flight league title last season – discovered that things weren’t always going to go her way all the time as Kitchee’s Jared Lum scored late on in the game. Andreas Lam Zhi-gin scored the opener for Kitchee before Miroslav Saric found the equaliser only for Lum to settle the issue in the 78th minute. Chan was disappointed with the result, leaving the stadium without giving any comment to the waiting press corps. Chan was later tracked down and admitted that Eastern’s performance was not bad and that “Kitchee deserved to win”. “Kitchee pressed us hard in the first period but we were able to get back into the game after the break,”she said. “But the most important thing is that they [Kitchee] made less mistakes which is very important in a final and Kitchee deserved to win. “Of course, we are not happy with the result. The team who makes less mistakes deserve to win the final game. I am satisfied with my players’ performance, they did what I told them to do but Kitchee were playing well as well. “I don’t think it going to affect our confidence, as we did well in the game, It’s time to move on and concentrate on the league again,” she said. Eastern are one point behind Kitchee in the table. Meanwhile, Kitchee clinched their first Senior Shield trophy in more than a decade in front of a crowd of 6,216 And they had Lam to thank after the German-born player was thrust into action by chance after Alex Akande injured himself warming up. The midfielder l was supposed to sit on the bench for the countdown of the first silverware of the season but was called into action just minutes before kick-off. And the diminutive player didn’t let his club down, putting Kitchee ahead early in the game through a header. Lam had another chance to add to his tally in the second half but missed from close range before he was replaced. Although Eastern pulled one back later through Miroslav Saric, Lum scored the winner with a superb goal after a neat team effort involving four Kitchee players to give the club their first title of the season and break their jinx in the oldest tournament in Hong Kong soccer after losing all three of their previous finals. Kitchee last clinched the trophy in 2006 before losing their next three finals, including a 3-2 defeat by Eastern in 2015. The 25-year-old Lam, who joined the Hong Kong league this season from German Second Division side Greuther Furth, was surprised by his sudden call-up. “I was a bit surprised when I was told to replace [the injured] Alex just before the start of the match,” said Lam, who had a three-year spell with Bundesliga side Hamburg SV until 2014. “But I had no time to think about it and gave it my best on the field as I’ve always done. Indeed, this is my first goal from a header but it doesn’t matter as long as we won the trophy. “Also, the coach put his faith in me and I wanted to give something back to the club, especially for this cup trophy which we hadn’t won in a long time. The victory would give us more confidence in the remaining season but there is still a long way to go.” Kitchee head coach Chu Chi-kwong paid tribute to his players, saying they were determined to wrest the silverware from Eastern. “We didn’t suffer any cup final hiccups today and were at our very best,” said Chu. “We created a couple of more chances after going into the lead but could not pull away from the score and even allowed Eastern to come back into equal terms. “But we were unperturbed and made some right decisions at the right moment before getting back into the match and taking victory which we richly deserved.”
Auckland City FC (New Zealand) will replace Australia U23 in Lunar New Year Cup 2017. They will face FC Seoul on Jan 28 and Kitchee/Muangthong United in either third placed match or final on Jan 31.
Nike is the title sponsor of the Lunar New Year Cup 28 Jan: FC Seoul vs Auckland City; Kitchee vs Muangthong United 31 Jan: Third place match; Final.
Wallace Cheung of South China said he lowered the transfer fee request to HK$600,000. He hopes the issue will be resolved quickly. If I were Hong Kong Pegasus boss then I would not spend a single cent. I would just wait until the end of the season then sign him for free. HK Pegasus has Macau striker Leong Ka-Hang, he is young, fast and hungry, he is also now registered as a local player in the league, so why waste so much money on Chan Siu-Ki?
The Policy Address today is said to include a plan to turn Wan Chai Sports Ground into HK Convention and Exhibition Centre phase 3. Hong Kong Stadium will be turned into a sports ground to replace it, as Kai Tak Stadium will be built to replace it. Since the sports industry will have to share the Kai Tak facilities with the performing arts industry, so the talk of building more sports facilities for the sports industry is just bull. Current setup, the sports industry get sole use of HK Stadium. Now sports have to share HK Stadium with the schools and Kai Tak Stadium with performing arts.
Sapling Cup Wofoo Tai Po 1:0 Kitchee Kitchee sent on most of its young players plus those foreigners who did not play the full 90 minutes on Sunday. Wofoo Tai Po sent on their strongest team. Wofoo Tai Po now advances to play South China.
2017 Lunar New Year Cup tickets now on sale online: http://venue.cityline.com/utsvInter...=eventDetail&event=19214&actionType=5&lang=en
HKPL Southern District 1:0 Kitchee Michael Luk scored with a great shot while Tse Tak-Him saved a penalty as well as other shots to give Southern District a well deserved win against Kitchee. Kitchee now drops to second behind Eastern Longlions. Wofoo Tai Po 1:1 Eastern Longlions Jaimes McKee scored for Eastern Longlions but Wong Wai equalized for the home club. Thanks to Wong Wai's effort Kitchee are not so far behind despite their loss. HK Pegasus 2:3 Lee Man Rangers Another disappointing performance by high spending HK Pegasus. Lee Man Rangers' Jordi Tarres scored twice.