Another lacklustre defeat as season goes from bad to worse

Less than two weeks after defeat to Eastern all but sealed Kitchee's failure to defend their title, the two sides again met at Mong Kok Stadium, for the fourth time this season (fifth if you include the HKPL Cup over the Christmas break). Kitchee were looking for revenge and the chance of a cup final against Sham Shui Po. Ruslan Mingazow still remained injured, so Kitchee opted for largely the same side from the league defeat, the squad having had eleven days without a game; Lok coming in for Scott as the only change.

Paulo; Law (Roberto 67), Helio (c), Russell (Wang 90), Shinichi (Fernando 46); Lok (Scott 67), Cleiton, Mikael; Temirov (Igor 73), Juninho, Jantscher

Match highlights

Juninho and Temirov went close for Kitchee early on, who made a better start than the league game earlier this month. But this was sucker-punched by some horrendous defending, allowing Ma Hei-wai to waltz through the defence and play in Noah Baffoe for a simple finish. VAR denied Eastern a penalty on the half hour mark, before Temirov went close with a header from a corner. Eastern right back Callum Hall had Shinichi on toast, setting up Anson Wong who was denied by a save low to his left from Paulo. On a wet day in Mong Kok, it was 1-0 to Eastern at half time.

Paulo got caught in no man's land from an Eastern free kick, lucky to see Dani Almazan's header drift past the post. Good work by Fernando down the left teed up Jakob Jantscher, who saw his effort blocked by Leon Jones. Paulo got down to gather Ma Hei-wai's effort at the second time of asking, as Eastern pushed for a second goal. Russell almost scored an outrageous bicycle kick, before Kitchee equalised in bizarre fashion. Mikael was hauled to the ground by Kozubayev, and while on the floor was hit by Jantscher's corner and the ball found its way into the net. Fifteen minutes to go, and could Kitchee push on?

The answer was no. Kitchee were level for around two minutes before Almazan's long ball forward found Baffoe, who evaded the slow Kitchee defence and rounded Paulo to spark jubilation from the Eastern support. Baffoe took advantage of more useless defending to find himself 1 on 1 with Paulo, who came out, committed to the tackle, and received a red card for his troubles. Wang came on for the final exploits. Jesse had a good chance to extend Eastern's lead, but after ten minutes of stoppage time the game ended 2-1. Another shambolic performance from Kitchee, who were quite rightly booed by the fans. No players made an effort to come over properly, showing the fact that so many of the players have given up, with many off in the summer. Kitchee will almost definitely (barring a miracle collapse from Lee Man) have no Asian football for the first time since 2011. Treble winners last season, in April and May they have fallen apart.

Fan feedback

Another shambles. Kitchee have wasted eleven days since their last game, and facing the same opponent were exposed in the same way. The Helio/Russell double act at the heart of the defence has been exposed by Noah Baffoe repeatedly this season, and yet Kitchee still tried to play the ball out from the back. Kitchee struggled to string five passes together, and most of the chances created were not close. There was a positive start, with Kitchee pressing Eastern goal kicks, but this disappeared after the Eastern goal, which came about from Paulo's indecisiveness (after skewing a clearance in the first minute). The experienced keeper left the ball for Shinichi to chase, putting the young full back under pressure which led to a turnover in possession. After regaining the ball, Eastern scored, as Ma Hei-wai was able to dribble past our defence and set up a simple goal, as Paulo had rushed out early. Lots of pointless crosses either went straight to the Eastern goalkeeper or were easily cleared, as our midfield does not push up. This lack of attacking decisiveness allowed Eastern's defence to reset regularly.  The Brazilians in the squad seem unable to pass to anyone non-Brazilian, unless there is absolutely no option. Mikael spent a lot of the game doing nothing, and how Chinese Super League clubs are interested in him is a mystery. The squad is clearly divided, and has been all season.

The management of the club is a joke. In previous weeks we have spoken about poor recruitment, but that is not the only issue. Alex Chu was sacked in September, replaced by Kim Dong-jin as an 'interim manager'. Interim managers should not be in place for nine months; as fans we ask what was the thinking behind this? For this game Poon Man-chun and Edgar Cardoso appeared to be in charge (from both rumours amongst fans but also evidenced with Kim sat for the majority of the game), so has chairman Ken Ng finally had enough of this mediocrity? 

Player selection has been poor all season. This front three Kitchee have opted for in recent weeks (sometimes with Igor involved) has no cohesion. There is no build up to create chances. We have spoken at length about players being rushed back from injury too soon, but this is also the case in goal. Paulo Cesar sustained a bad injury in November, and only played two games between then and the end of April as he recovered. Wang Zhenpeng ably deputised for much of the season, but Paulo was recalled for both Eastern games and has been poor, slow to react to chances and obsessed with short goal kicks, where we are lucky not to be caught out more.

What's next

Kitchee take on Rangers on Wednesday 15th (3pm at Mong Kok) in the Sapling Cup final. Many Kitchee fans will not attend, some thinking the competition is pointless given Kitchee's obsession with playing veterans in a competition designed for young players. Others may have gone but after the recent mediocrity do not feel supporting the club in a joke of a competition is the best use of their public holiday. Paulo, Law and Mikael will miss the final through suspension, and Mingazow will be out for the remainder of the season. Following this we travel to Southern in Aberdeen on the 18th, where Kitchee need a win to have any chance of a top two finish, given that Tai Po are currently level on points with their remaining games being against the current bottom two. 

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Written by Adam O'Domhnaill