Prediction League and Match Preview: League Match 5 - Kitchee vs Lee Man Warriors

Friday night sees Kitchee return to league action against the Warriors of Lee Man, under the floodlights at Mong Kok Stadium. Could the Buzzing Bees launch a surprise sting against Kitchee?!

WHO ARE YA?!!

This question is quite relevant, seeing as this is the first season in the Hong Kong Premier League for Lee Man Warriors. However, it is not the first time that Lee Man have been involved in the league - as they the main sponsors of Rangers last year. However, Lee Man decided they wanted to invest in building their own club and so paid HKFA for the right to enter directly. 

The Buzzing Bees have made an impressive start to their first ever HKPL campaign,  notching up a 3-2 victory against Eastern (although, I reckon an Angry Boundary Street 11 would probably give Eastern a match this season) and a 2-2 draw with Tai Po. 

Lee Man, who clearly have a reasonable budget behind them, have made some excellent signings for their first season in the league including Jordi Tarres (on-loan), Dennis Lima, Ze Victor, Stefan Pereira and Chiu Chun-Kit - all of whom have impressed in the HKPL in previous seasons. 

One to watch...

One man that the Kitchee faithful will be weary of is local hero Jordi. Fresh from scoring for Hong Kong on his national team debut vs Malaysia, the 36 year old on-loan Kitchee striker (who scored 47 goals in just 86 appearances for the Bluewaves) will be full of confidence and perhaps keen to remind his permanent employers of what they are missing.  

Jordi showed last season, whilst playing for Rangers, that he can score goals for struggling teams as well as table toppers and has already opened his domestic account this season with a goal against Eastern. Supported by Dennis Lima and Stefan Pereira, Jordi's goals should be enough to ensure that Lee Man manage a comfortable mid-table placing, rather than dicing too dangerously with relegation. 

Kitchee news...

After resting  Matt Lam, Jared Lum, Lucas, Helio and Wang Zheng Pang and giving opportunities to some of the more fringe players in the Sapling Cup last week, we would expect the Bluewaves to be back to full strength for the match against the Bees.  

It will be interesting to see whether Alex keeps his place, after a good recent scoring run, or whether Lucas will be drafted straight back in.  Also, Alex Chu may have to shuffle his deck a little if he wants to accommodate Matt Lam and Jared as well as Sandro.  With Kim Dong Jin back from injury and eager for game time, Chu certainly has some big calls to make. 

Predictions... 

Whilst Lee Man have made an impressive start, Kitchee have also started their league campaign this season in fine form with 10 points from four games and will be buoyant after a comprehensive victory against Pegasus in the Sapling Cup last weekend. Whilst Lee Man fans will be hoping for another upset, we think that the Bluewaves will be just too strong for the Bees and should run out comfortable winners.  We think the chances of a sting in the tail from Lee Man are low and predict 4-0 Kitchee - of course, with Vadocz scoring first.

What do our panel think?

Again, everyone is predicting victory by at least a 2 goal margin with Sandro or Lucas favorite to be the first scorer.  Come back on Monday to see how their predictions work out!