I believe that the majority of the teams especially Hong Kong will monitor the Palestine and Philippines match in hopes that the results will go in to their favour. But it is like what you said that Hong Kong has shown great momentum and form during their past two ties and I think it is important to transit that form tomorrow knowing that they are playing against the hosts on their home soil. Palestine were in brilliant form since they breezed past Yemen by five goals whilst the Philippines only managed to score through a late penalty during the late stages against Mongolia. With that, I do feel that the Philippines will have quite an enormous and tough task to beat Palestine. If Palestine does indeed get the result, then this will likely put Hong Kong in a good spot to qualify.
I think we are actually over thinking it. Palestine and the Philippines cannot BOTH attain 7 points, so Hong Kong and India just need to play out a draw and we will both qualify.
It's even more simple. As long as the Philippines don't pick up three points, we will clinch at 2:30 Hong Kong time.
Palestine 4:0 Philippines. It is done. We are through to the 2023 Asian Cup finals. Hopefully Japan will host it and lots of Hong Kong fans can attend in person.
Woohoo! We are through! So happy for the team and for us fans. I know this squad isn't our strongest squad, but they've really shown a level of unity not seen in a long time.
I'm just so sorry that some of the players in this squad won't be seen at the finals, after they have put in so much effort and time for this phase of qualifying. I hope they at least get a decent bonus from HKFA or HK govt.
This year has certainly been a great year for Hong Kong football. Kitchee being the first Hong Kong club to advance to the last 16 of the AFC Champions League and now the national team making their AFC Asian Cup finals appearance since 1968. All credit to the hardworking players, the staff and Jorn Andersen. I wonder if Andersen is going to stick with his usual starting eleven players or will he do some rotation and let others get an opportunity against India?
Here is the Hong Kong starting line-up to face India: Not much changes with the exception that Fung Hing Wa makes a return in place of Yue Tsz Nam.
Not impressed with Orr's defensive fight this half Wong Tsz Ho makes an absolute rookie mistake - ball watching instead of man marking, ends up costing HK a goal. He needs to GO
Full Time - Hong Kong Vs India - 0:4 Not exactly the Hong Kong national team's finest hour as they were beaten by four goals by the hosts. With over a year until the finals commence, I do hope that this will give Jorn Andersen the time to prepare his team a lot more.
I don't know why Fernando and Tsui Wang-Kit were not used. If it was an COVID-19 isolation issue and they couldn't play, why weren't they sent home? The easiest solution is to replace the majority of this group with China based players and naturalized players. I am sure they will be eager to play in the Asian Cup finals, where they can show case their talents to a wide audience.
Who would make the list? Of the China-based players: Tan Chun Lok - Yes Leung Nok Hang - Yes Vas Nunez - Maybe Li Ngai Hoi - Yes Andy Russell - Yes Sandro - Maybe/ No So that would be ~4 players, mostly in defense and 1 in midfield. Of the other naturalized players, I can't imagine any more being included (those who were not already called up this time). Maybe Alex? I expect Tomas to be dropped, possibly Diego too. Maybe they will call up Wellingsson to beef up the attack. I wonder if Matt Lam and Everton will be naturalized before then, and if they will be called up.
I think some of the China-based players will feature in which I believe Tan Chun Lok, Leung Nok Hang, Vas Nunez and Li Ngai Hoi my prime candidates. Andy Russell is a maybe and as for Sandro who had not played for quite a while since his release from Eastern will need to find his form in his new club. In addition, Shinichi Chan will be available for selection after December as he and eleven of the players were suspended for a year. On naturalised players, I believe Southern's Luciano will be eligible this year as does Eduardo Praes whilst Eastern's Matt Lam still remains eligible. There are foreign players that will become eligible next year for naturalisation that include Everton, Eastern's Jared Lum, Lee Man's Manolo Bleda and Southern's Stefan. If Wellingsson can find a new club and regain his form, then I could see him make the squad.
That isolation policy comes from the AFC. They couldn't leave even if they wanted to because it was mandated that they had to remain in their rooms for 7 days.
Wellingsson was very fat when I saw him play in a friendly before the ACL group matches. It was not a surprise that he did not play any part in Kitchee's group games.
https://hk.on.cc/hk/bkn/cnt/sport/20220616/bkn-20220616011431301-0616_00882_001.html 12 players and staff members were found to be COVID-19 positive on arrival in Thailand. They will go through isolation in Thailand.
Happily, Lam, Lun, Everton, and Bleda will be (relatively) young upon naturalization, and they can probably play for the HKNT for the next 5-7 years if needed. Deepening the talent pool is always a good thing. Andersen is placing an emphasis on youth as well, and I believe he has named 2 players - Sun Ming Him and Sogho Ichikawa - as being stars of the future.
With the EAFF E-1 East Asia Cup finals next month, I do expect at least some of the young players that had featured during the Asian Cup third round qualifiers from Sun Ming Him, Yu Joy Yin, Jahangir Khan and Ng Wai Him to be a part of the squad.
According to a news post on Instagram (reposted by Jorn Andersen on his story), it says that the HK squad will use the same core as the Asia Cup Qualifiers for the EAFF East Asia Cup. Not that I disagree - I agree that we should sent our best squad to face the strong teams and to get match experience - but I thought earlier he said he would use a U23 core squad instead, and had already named a whole team? https://www.instagram.com/p/Ce2A66GvHPJ/?hl=en
Actually, I think the two main takeaways from the three matches are that HK can win with younger players and that we do not need to rely on naturalization to win. Against Afghanistan, 10 of the 16 players we used were born in HK. Against Cambodia, it was 11 of 16. If you want account for the fact that Khan was raised in HK, then the numbers are even more impressive. No, it was the chairman who said that we would use our U23s. I think either things changed when the Asian Games were postponed or he was talking out of his ass (as usual). But beyond wanting to continue to build chemistry, Andersen also said that we have to improve our world ranking. Let's face it, if we weren't in Pot 2 for the draw, we wouldn't have ended up with Afghanistan and Cambodia as our opponents, and further to that, we likely wouldn't have advanced.