@adrenaline11 - good point, against BG (basically international competition) it does look a lot worse... I guess this is the downside of me only casually watching Kitchee in the league (hence making them look a lot better than they are). In particular that 2nd goal you posted, Gerbig was all out of place (and also Wang should've come out a lot quicker).
https://hk.on.cc/hk/bkn/cnt/sport/20230321/bkn-20230321230254401-0321_00882_001.html Michael Udebuluzor of FC Ingolstadt 04 U19 is applying for HKSAR passport. He said he is going to represent HK because of coach Jorn Andersen's trust. I think Andersen wants him to play for HK U23 in the Hangzhou Asian Games first of all, before the full national team.
And it's match day! Finally. What are you all most excited to seeing / finding about from today's friendly?
To see if Paulo starts in goal or not. Quite sad to see that Shinichi Chan was seriously injured and will miss te rest of the season in Spain. Was in a good form. Any link?
Singapore FA will be streaming live from their FB/ YouTube page, check it out: https://www.facebook.com/singaporefootball/ Also, Paulo indeed starts. As much as I love Jorn his obsession with the absolute garbage Paulo continues to baffle me. Can someone help me understand why?
Hong Kong wanted to press high and score early, but as usual they had all the bark but no bite. I think Matthew Orr is good but he is not center forward material. Maybe Jorn Andersen should recall Alex Akande. Law Tsz Chun was clearly out of breath by the 70th minute or so which is worrying for him. He is supposed to be fit enough for the whole match. The midfield was not bad, both Wong Wai and Ju Yingzhi had good moments. But the two of them did not seem to work well together. Wong Wai became more alive after Ju Yingzhi was substituted. Wang Yang was good but he is really not getting any younger, I guess he is only playing because Tan Chun-Lok is unavailable. The defense sometimes lacks concentration. Jorn needs to work on them. Onwards to Malaysia, we lost 0-2 last time and I don't expect a different result this time around.
Helio has dropped out of the squad as he lost his luggage (containing his passport) in an Uber; he was able to reach the driver once but then he disappeared, so he cannot make it to Malaysia. Matt Orr has dropped out due to injury. ** I think Helio was always going to be on the bench as coach experiments with Nunez and Li Ngai Hoi, so not a complete loss. This squad was meant for experimentation anyways. Orr was struggling in the first match so no surprise there. I think Sun will take up the #9 role and lets see who gets the start on the left; Poon?
Plus Wong Wai trained by himself on Sunday and isn't expected to play Tuesday. Just like that, we're down three starters from Thursday. I can remember when we dominated Malaysia on their pitch in 2017 but Sandro missed a last minute penalty and the game ended 1-1. Our manager that day was Kim Pan-gon. Not only have Malaysia surpassed us in the years since, they're now playing the type of high press, high energy football that was the opposite of Kim's HK teams.
Macau 0:1 Singapore Tan Han-Wei once again scored for Singapore. The result suggests that Macau may not be so far behind Hong Kong in terms of footballing ability.
After impressing in the Merlion Cup, Jesse Yu and Kyle Lau have been called up to the senior team for the match against Malaysia, presumably replacing the aforementioned Helio, Orr, and Wong. Kyle Lau in particular has really impressed and I believe scored twice in the Merlion Cup. Great to see him shine when given the opportunity to. Also glad to see Jesse Yu called in, who many thought should've been included in the senior team from the get go. Hopefully Kyle can develop into a decent CF for the HK team!
The pair are already in Singapore and it is not very far for them to travel up to Kuala Lumpur to join the NT. HKFA must have booked hotel rooms for Helio and Matt Orr so they can just take over. In the logistics sense it is quite easy to do. But they have played two games in the last 3 days so I don't think they will be fully fit. I think Jorn Andersen just want to have them experience what it is like to be with the full NT and maybe get a few minutes in the match as subs.
As per SCMP, Jorn realizes they will be exhausted (physically and emotionally) but had no choice to call them up; sounds like @Angsa is right, they will mostly be support / back up. “The two players just played two matches and may not be in their best condition because they may feel tired. But we have to call them for support in case there are some further injuries.” Per local media, Jorn also specifically mentioned the lack of depth at the striker position - so the loss of Orr was really devastating.
The match is in Johor Bahru, which is right on the border with Singapore. https://www.google.com/maps/place/J...!8m2!3d1.492659!4d103.7413591!16zL20vMDIwN3No
Some media says the venue is at Larkin Stadium while others says it is Sultan Ibrahim Stadium. https://www.thestar.com.my/sport/fo...nt-lose-bite-despite-absence-of-two-jdt-stars This Malaysian report says the venue is Sultan Ibrahim Stadium, Johor DT's home ground. Fortunately Johor DT strikers Endrick dos Santos and Arif Aiman Hanapi, are out with injuries. https://www.thestar.com.my/sport/fo...nt-approach-to-tame-a-stronger-harimau-malaya Andersen said his side, nicknamed “the Strengths”, will give a better fight in a Tier 1 friendly game at the Sultan Ibrahim Stadium in Iskandar Puteri today. "The Strengths"??? Does it have a Chinese translation?
Full-Time: Malaysia Vs Hong Kong - 2:0 Hong Kong's rematch against Malaysia once again ended in a loss despite Vas Nunez hitting the post and Poon Pui Hin had many opportunities to score. But overall, I just feel that the national team really lacked any bite in attack and lack of concentration led to them conceding the two goals.
I thought that was just a slogan, rather than a nickname for the NT. Vas Nunez was a positive. The rest of the team tried hard but rarely did anything impressive. At one stage I thought we would lose by 3 or 4 goals but fortunately it did not come to be.
I just hope that the likes of Everton Camargo, Stefan Pereira, Juninho and possibly Michael Udebuluzor will be made available for the next international friendly fixtures that could hopefully give the national team and Jorn Andersen more options up front.
This window showed who where each player is on the pecking order. For example, Ju Jingzhi and Huang Yang started both matches. Despite what we may think of them, it's clear that Andersen trusts them and values their leadership abilities. Li Ngai Hoi isn't good enough. It may be unfair to criticize him based on one game but when you play a position with a lot of depth, you need to be ready to compete. He didn't make the most of his opportunity, whereas Helio, Leung Nok Hang and Vas Nunez all did. Poon Pui Hin isn't a striker, but he's a good athlete. The question is whether that's good enough for Andersen and if so, where does he play? RW looks to be a crowded position with Law Tsz, Awal, Khan and soon, Everton, all capable of playing in that position. Is he a LW then? It's not a position where he has spent any time playing at the club level. We lack cutting edge. Has Fernando been that bad for Kitchee that Andersen didn't want to consider him? Time and again, our wide players are putting crosses with no pace and no direction. We don't even need Fernando to defend. He can just come on at LW as a sub and provide some decent crosses. Yapp Hung Fai is still better than Paolo. If the rumour about Andersen preferring big and tall keepers is true, that would be a shame as it excludes Freddie Toomer from ever playing for us, even if he were to naturalize. I suppose we'll have to see if Alex Shliakotin will go through with naturalizing.
Malaysia 2:0 Hong Kong I am impressed with my own prediction. Just give me Alex Akande and Fernando upfront. The current trio of Poon Pui-Hin, Awal and Sun Ming-Him are too light weight. They did not cause much trouble to Malaysia except a great run by Poon. Awal was surprisingly quiet. Huang Yang and Ju Yingzhi played both matches, while Huang Yang was great as usual, I think he only played because Tan Chun-Lok was not available. Ju Yingzhi was good in flashes but not great. One of the newly naturalized players will probably take over his place.
Of Poon/Sun/Awal, I found Awal the most disappointing and invisible, except for one nice cross into the box. He seems half committed on both offense and defense and was basically uninvolved. Both Poon and Sun at least had some fire and was digging in, though they did not end up being able to do much. But the effort was there, unlike what I saw from Awal. Re: Jorn liking his big keepers, I would honestly rather have Ng Wai Him or Tse Ka Wing start over Paulo...
As seen on Twitter, besides Michael U, Jorn is also targeting a player called Aaron Keller to play for HK, who I have never heard of. #HKfootball https://t.co/xSZv2N8pzc pic.twitter.com/XZLlKIwczU— Lester Chan (@enterchanman) April 1, 2023