Kitchee's line up against Guangzhou Evergrande with a a couple of slight changes: Tong Kin Man, Seb Buddle and Ho Chun Ting will take their place in the starting eleven replacing Law Tsz Chun, Roberto and the suspended Huang Yang.
Half-Time: Kitchee SC Vs Guangzhou Evergrande FC - 1:0 Kitchee currently take the lead as Dejan Damjanovic scored from the penalty spot during the first half. Let's hope that Kitchee can hold on to the lead and perhaps score another goal.
3 points! Wonderful. Kitchee moves back into 2nd place and will keep up the pressure on Osaka. And this helps Kitchee in the race to qualify as a top 2nd place team.
Full Time: Kitchee SC Vs Guangzhou Evergrande - 1:0 Another three important points for Kitchee which will certainly keep the pressure on Cerezo Osaka after they had dominated a lot of the possession against a youthful Guangzhou Evergrande who couldn't really seem to get much possession of the ball.
Another thing that I will say is that whilst I do believe that the likes of Matt Orr, Ho Chun Ting and Seb Buddle all have great potential to shape the future of Hong Kong football, there are areas that will need a lot more work.
Orr is a great player but his finishing needs work... and he needs to be more physical. I think they just all need more playing time, throw them out there as much as possible. Unfortunately Buddle will probably need another loan spell.
Happy Valley AA have confirmed that they will not be participating in the 2021/22 season of the Hong Kong Premier League: Former Happy Valley AA captain Luciano has signed on to join KC Southern to act as Roberto Fronza's replacement, whilst it is also believed that young defender Yip Cheuk Man has joined RCFC. So I probably guess that Charlie Scott is heading to Kitchee? In addition to Roberto Losada's permanent position as head coach, Eastern have also released several players that includes Chak Ting Fung, Dudu, Joao Emir, Tsang Man Fai, Cheng King Ho (who is joining RCFC) as well as Oliver Laxton and Cheng Tsz Sum who both featured during the 2021 AFC Cup.
Eastern FC lets go of another 10 players, while Roberto "Chino" Losada is officially named head coach for 2021/22 season. There are only 7 clubs for the new season, it is really not ideal. Let's see how HKFA deals with this.
I think the performance and result were both poor. Kitchee's failure to get a second goal may cost them a place in the knock-out stages if they finish second and goal difference comes into play. Looking at the West Asia side, a club needs 10 points to qualify as a best second placed team. That means Kitchee needs to beat Guangzhou FC again, plus getting at least 1 point from Cerezo Osaka or Port FC, which is easier said than done. The older players are getting tired and the younger players are not up to the task.
https://www.wenweipo.com/a/202107/02/AP60de26b9e4b08d3407ca961a.html Wen Wei Po reports that TSW Pegasus' participation in the 2021/22 HKPL season is still an uncertainty. So there could be only 6 clubs next season...
KC Southern has been rather busy lately with their signings. In addition to acquiring Luciano, they also signed Chak Ting Fung who had recently been released by Eastern and another Happy Valley player, Jahangir Khan.
Here is the starting line-up for Kitchee who face Guangzhou FC in their second meeting: There are a lot of changes within Kitchee's line up. Huang Yang comes back in to the starting line-up as does Roberto. Alex Akande, Shinichi Chan along with Ngan Cheuk Pan are set to make their first starts whilst Cleiton, Raul Baena and Park Jun-Heong are on the subs bench.
Full Time: Kitchee Vs Guangzhou FC - 1:0 I will say that it is quite a risky move by Alex Chu to rotate the squad around against Guangzhou's second meeting. Despite a very uninteresting first half, they managed to grab a goal courtesy of Dejan Damjanovic who scored from the penalty spot which he now scored four games in four matches plus increases his AFC goal scoring tally to 40. They will need to get a result between Port FC or Cerezo Osaka if they were to advance any further in the AFC Champions League.
Former R&F and Eastern player Dudu signs for Southern! The southern signings don't stop! pic.twitter.com/NTS5Hs44tG— Ralphy Dray (@DrayRalphy) July 4, 2021 KC Southern have been really busy within the transfer market as former Eastern defender Dudu joins them as the club's fourth signing.
I never understood what happened to Pedro Mendes. Apparently he "left the club due to injury" after 8 league matches?
The next match between Kitchee and Port FC is basically the decider on which club will progress to the next round. Kitchee will get 12 points in total if they win and that probably should be enough to see them progress. They already rested many key players like Dani, Park Jun-Heong, Raul Baena... etc. Cleiton only played 45 min in the last match as well. But Port FC cannot win the group and can only progress as one of the 3 best second placed teams. To do that they must win both remaining matches. Kitchee will have their backs to the wall again.
https://www.wenweipo.com/a/202107/05/AP60e21b2fe4b08d3407cb5a68.html Happy Valley AA's (former) coach and players will hold a press conference next Monday (12 July) to seek their unpaid salaries. Wen Wei Po does not say what they will say apart from "we want our money". I suspect they might be lining up a court case. HKFA chairman Pui Kwan-Kay is also the chairman of Happy Valley AA, the parent organization of Happy Valley football team. He might be forced to make a statement as a result.
To be fair, Dani was already serving a one match suspension for picking up his second yellow card which meant that he missed the second match against Guangzhou whilst Baena, Cleiton and Park were all on a yellow card as well which is one the reasons why Kitchee were cautious and had to rotate the squad around. I do feel that there are several Kitchee players that should consider going out on loan and the club will have to sieze advantage of the transfer window and hopefully get some fresh additions to their squad.
He picked up some chronic leg injuries as a result of training on a 3G surface. The Labour Department has already started an investigation. The press conference will hopefully provide an update on that. Pui has already denied any responsibility multiple times. It's not in his nature to take responsibility for anything.
What Kitchee need first of all is for Wellingsson de Sousa and Sean Tse to receive their HKSAR passports. I think Alex Chu had expected them to be available for these group matches, which would have given him a 23 men squad instead of the current 21.
https://hk.on.cc/hk/bkn/cnt/sport/20210705/bkn-20210705135358521-0705_00882_001.html AFC changed the format for both ACL and AFC Cup this year and next year. Lee Man might be able to host the next round of their AFC Cup knock out match.
Full Time: Kitchee Vs Port FC - 1:1 Kitchee could only manage a 1-1 draw in the second encounter against Port FC. Port FC took the lead in the early minutes before it was cancelled out by Matt Orr who equalised for Kitchee. However, Helio Goncalves sustained a hamstring injury which will be a huge blow for Kitchee going in to their final fixture in an all important clash against leaders Cerezo Osaka.
I think Kitchee is done for this ACL campaign. There is no way they can beat Cerezo Osaka by 8 goals. They have got 10 points and finished a very decent second place in the group. I reckon 10 points is likely to be not enough to progress, and even if they did progress they would have to play away to a K League or J League club which is probably too hard for Kitchee anyway. They can take their last match against Cerezo Osaka as their final test against a J League side and see how they compare. Especially given HKPL's new season will likely feature only 6 clubs, Kitchee should just enjoy it.