Kitchee will play away to Perak tomorrow 21:00 at Perak Stadium in the ACL preliminary round. The winner will progress to the 2nd round and face Ulsan Hyundai Kitchee coach Chu Chi Kwong said the local weather in Malaysia is a huge concern and his players need to adapt well. He also said Perak is a good side and very speedy. I think Kitchee might just be able to get through based on slightly better form as well as because they have fewer injured players now. I hope they win because it is important for Hong Kong clubs to do well in Asian competitions.
Kitchee came within one penalty of sealing an improbably comeback against Perak. And once again, they crash out of Asia, on penalties.
Now they get to play in the reformed AFC Cup with the likes of 4.25, Hang Yuen and (probably) Wofoo Tai Po, with the group winners advancing directly to the semi-finals. What a crappy match up and lousy tournament. Kitchee and Tai Po in same AFC Cup group. That means Mong Kok Stadium for both. How wonderful. Every game in Mong Kok Stadium, every Hong Kong football fans' dream realized. The game will die in Hong Kong soon.
Andrejs Štolcers (left and inset) from Latvia is the new head coach and technical director of Eastern Longlions. He already arrived a few weeks ago to be appointed technical director, but as Chan Yuen-Ting resigned, he is taking up the head coach position as well.
Just really disappointed and frustrated by Kitchee's defeat. All the hard work and talk from last year's ACL group stage seems to have bear no fruit at the club at all. Nobody at the club seemed to have learnt anything from last year and the whole club regressed. Okay it might be something to do with the forced closure of their own training ground due to typhoon damage. But still I believe they could have prepared for the season and especially the Perak game better. Perak's coach did not even seem particularly keen to progress to the next round. (No chance to beat Ulsan Hyundai and a flyaway to a cold country at the beginning of the Malaysian League season. All seems to be a waste of time and energy.) Yet Kitchee lost an early goal and their newly recruited Aussie defender got sent off. Why did they sign a 36 year old defender? I'd have gone for Jared Lam as my Asian player and have a local central defender partner Helio. Jared Lam has been so loyal and good for the club, yet Kitchee's way to repay his loyalty is to sign a 36 year old defender to take his rightful place in Asian competitions. The other foreigners they signed at the beginning of the season have both been disappointments. Robert is now loaned to Hoi King and Tadic is injured. Both will not feature in the club's AFC Cup plans. Yet they trusted their latest recruit Matt Smith. Did Robert and Tadic's problems not teach them anything? Chu Chi-Kwong's thinking is beyond me. I just hope Kitchee makes it to the AFC Cup final and qualifies for the ACL preliminary round through that route. But unless Robert, Tadic and Matt Smith really comes good as Kitchee believe they can, otherwise that is very unlikely.
Kitchee's title hopes had taken a blow after they had lost to Wofoo Tai Po FC courtesy from a former Kitchee striker, Sandro who had netted two of Tai Po's goals whilst third goal was scored by Igor Sartori who had converted from a penalty.
Kitchee are now five back. They made some weird lineup choices in this game, choosing to not to include Jared Lum in the 18 despite the fact that the did not travel to Perak. I agree with Angsa, Lum should've been one of Kitchee's foreigners in the ACL squad. The good news is that they can submit a new squad for the AFC Cup and I hope that they will include him then. Can you imagine, though, what would would happen if Kitchee don't qualify for Asian competition next year?
HKPL Dream FC 4:1 Best United Yuen Long Heavy defeat for Yuen Long. Hopefully they will bounce back from it.
I CAN actually. They will really have to show more quality if they are to win the league and I doubt they can improve that greatly. It was very strange for them yesterday to drop Matt Smith. He is not suspended and he only played half a match on Tuesday so he should be fit. Then Helio, who played 120 mins on Tues, got beaten by Sandro for the second goal. After the match Chu Chi-Kwong said some players are still feeling the effects of the match from Tues. Hello? Did you only know about this AFTER the match?
FT: Eastern Vs KC Southern - 1:4 Eastern Long Lion's poor run of form continued as they suffered a heavy defeat against KC Southern. Despite Everton Camargo's goal during the first half, KC Southern's James HA netted a hat-trick along with a Wellingson de Souza was enough to seal the win and remain two points below current leaders R&F HK.
https://www.facebook.com/video.php?v=315982782389512 Eastern Longlions 1:4 KC Southern District It seemed to me Eastern Longlions was pressing hard right from the word go. Even after they scored the first goal they did not sit back but kept on pressing. That actually played to KC Southern District's advantage as Wellingson de Souza and James Ha used their speed to make counter attacks. Eastern's defence simply could not cope with them. If Eastern had sat back then probably Southern would not find it so easy to score so many. A word of praise must also go to Tse Tak-Him for blocking out some of Eastern's goal attempts, particularly from Lam Kar-Wai. KC Southern District is now second in the HKPL table with 21 points, while Wofoo Tai Po has 20 points. Could a district club win the league for the first time? That would be great.
Goal of the year stuff from Ha. He's making the case to be included in the next Hong Kong squad, whenever that is. Eastern's CB's didn't play like a cohesive unit at all. You can see on the fourth goal in particular, Clayton and Lima both attack the ball. Clayton should not be attacking that ball. His lack of pace was exposed over and over again yesterday and it's apparent why, despite the fact that he has a Hong Kong passport now, he's one of the few naturalized Hong Kongers who hasn't received a call up. Besides the title race, it will be interesting to see where Kitchee, Pegasus and Eastern finish respectively. These are three clubs who prefer to use Mong Kok Stadium as their home ground. Kitchee plays more matches at Mong Kok than any other club in Hong Kong and it's possible that if they're not careful, they could lose the right to use it as their home ground next year.
Actually, Clayton did recieve a call up to the preliminary squad by Gary White for the Thailand friendly match last year, but did not make the final cut. Anyways speaking of naturalised players, since Yuen Long's Nigerian-born striker Caleb Ekwegwo had already been naturalised, we could possibly see Brazilian-born player Diego Moreira Eli of Eastern Long Lions who become eligible for naturalisation this year, although it is hard to say where they would exactly where they will fit within the national team's plans. R&F's HK Sean TSE Ka-Keung is another player who will become eligible to represent Hong Kong this year. In addition, we could potentially see the likes of Kitchee's Fernando and Matt Lam, KC Southern's Wellingson de Souza and Tai Po's Michel Lugo represent the Hong Kong National Football Team as they should all become eligible next year. I really do hope that James HA's display and performance against Eastern will earn him a recall into the national squad.
I did highly expect the preliminary squad list for the upcoming qualifiers to consist of a number of the players who had took part in Hong Kong's victory against Guangdong last month. It will be interesting to see whether Kenneth Kwok will take charge of the U23 team.
Any chance HK team will play in the March window? We will be rusty without any intl exposure and our ranking surely won't go up.
Full Time Results - Saturday Eastern Long Lions Vs Wofoo Tai Po FC - 1-2 Despite Clayton's goal to give Eastern the early lead, Tai Po's Michel Lugo responded to level the score during the 17th minute. In the second half, Tai Po found themselves ahead when Igor Sartori's cross met Eduardo Praes's heading the ball to the net. Tai Po maintained their lead until full time whilst Eastern's woeful run of form continues. Lee Man Vs KC Southern - 1-3 A mistake made by Lee Man's Chan Ming-Kong enabled Southern's Marko Krasic to take possession and slotted the team's first goal with Lau Hok-Ming grabbing the second on the 44th minute. Wellingson de Souza made it three during the latter half whilst Lee Man did salvage a goal back with Fong Pak-Lun finding the net. Kitchee SC Vs HK Pegasus - 3-0 Goals from Lucas Da Silva, Fernando and local player, Clement Benhaddouche was enough to secure an important three points to keep the title hopes alive. Full Time Results - Sunday Hoi King Vs Dreams FC - 1-4 Hoi King took an early lead when Kim Min-Ki was fouled in the box with Christian Annan Kwesi scoring from the penalty spot. Their lead was however short lived when Dreams FC defender Chan Wai Ho scored a minute later. Despite holding as much as they can in the second half, they conceded 3 goals within the late stages as their hopes of gaining a point were dashed. Best Union Yuen Long Vs R&F HK - 0-1 Lo Kwan Yee's goal was enough to secure R&F HK the all important three points to remain top of the Hong Kong Premier League.
I'm really disappointed with Pegasus' approach to this game. They left Sasaki on the bench to start the match electing to go with Major and Yuen Chun Sing up top. They gave up three goals before they brought him on and started playing brighter football afterwards. They'll be kicking themselves for the matter in which they conceded the first two goals but also for not having a go at Kitchee until they were 3-0 down. Quite a scrappy affair this one. Eight yellow cards were handed out amongst the two teams. Yuen Long played well enough to earn a point on any other night but a moment of quality between Leonco and Lo was the difference.
Apparently after the full-time whistle was blown, Hoi King players were furious about several controversial decisions to the match officials: http://www.offside.hk/league/hoi-ki...mK8iIzFJPOB6T4iQVoaoTNCFoJBe4Md_CotjnPiHECUq0
Andy Russell has joined CSL club Hebei China Fortune FC. The 1.91m defender is now the only HK player in the top level league of China.
Quite a turnaround for the big man, wasn't he released from the Malaysian league just a few years ago for poor performances?
Yep, and five years ago, he was playing in the seventh tier of English football. At 31 years old, his moment on the big stage has finally arrived.
On the other hand, Yanbin Funde FC in the Chinese Jia League has bankrupted. Hong Kong striker Alex Akande will now have to find a new club. Kitchee will probably be the best choice for both parties. Alex Akande can help the club's strike force in the AFC Cup. He can also showcase his talent there as he looks for a club. The only problem is that the player registration period is over. But he maybe able to register under the contract expiration clause in the HKFA regulations.