Kitchee Open Training 2017

Kitchee marked their return to training for the 2017 season with an open training session, allowing fans and the media to come along and see the guys being put through their paces.  With the first day back being mid-July, temperatures were devilishly hot and the thermometer on my phone said it was 35 degrees! Not the best conditions to come back to after a few well-deserved months on beach - particularly as some players seemed to have had a "more enjoyable" summer than others.

The Hong Kong Representative team players were all given an extra week before reporting back,  including Sandro. This was interesting as Sandro didn't actually play for Hong Kong due to not wanting to get injured whilst still negotiating his contract extension at Kitchee (however, judging from his instragram feed, the Brazilian striker and top scorer for the 2016/17 season had gone to extensive efforts to make sure he stayed in shape over the summer. 

Lucas was forced to do extra laps

One player for whom the same couldn't be said is perhaps Lucas.  I'm a big fan of Lucas and after seeing him play for Tai Po versus Kitchee on two occasions last season, I said that he was exactly the sort of player that we should be signing:-  big, strong and powerful with a rocket of a shot that can trouble 'keepers from 30 yards out. Other than perhaps Nikolas Komazec, there was no other striker in the HKPL I would have rather Kitchee sign. However, Lucas was way off the pace in this training session and lagged behind as his team mates completed their laps around the pitch.  What was great to see though was Fernando staying behind to help encourage his new team mate.  Having seen Lucas during the pre-season matches in Korea, he's still got a little way to go but I'm sure he will be ready to face Eastern on August 25th and think he will be fantastic asset to the team. 


HK team players aside, all the other key players were there and said that they had had a fantastic break.  Once of the nicest things about supporting Kitchee is how down to earth the players are.  It was really cool to chat to Matt Lam about his holiday in England and Italy and to Fernando about going back to Brazil.

Some familiar old faces returned as well, with Chris and ‘Paulinho’ both returning to Kitchee following their time out on loan. The reaction to Chris was a little negative, with many of the Kitchee faithful unable to forgive his for the lackluster performance he put in during the AFC Cup match against Bengaluru (where a 3-2 home defeat saw Kitchee knocked out of the competition). 

Anyway, it was an interesting day and good to get an idea of some of the exercises Pro footballers have to do.  I'm certainly sure that i couldn't have managed them in the same conditions!