Thailand Preseason roundup

24 of the 28 man first team squad travelled to Thailand, with Pong Cheuk-hei (injured until October), Kim Shin-wook, Jason Yuen Chun-him and Yu Ching-wai all missing out. The club played T1 side Chiangrai United and T2 side Kasetstart FC, drawing against the former and conceding a last minute winner to the latter.

Law Tsz-chun and Ruslan Mingazow missed the first game against Chiangrai United, with Wang Zhenpeng captaining and a first Kitchee appearance from the start for Kanda. Slattery went close early, before a quick free kick caught Kitchee's defence off guard. Wang brought down the forward in the box, and Chiangrai took the lead from the spot. Kanda went close, but Chiangrai came close to extending their lead on a couple of occasions before half time, where a number of changes were made, including first games for Riera, Adrian, Beattie and Kendy. New signing Adrián Revilla went close from range early doors, before good work down the left from Li Siu-hin and Adrián played in Juninho to equalise. Little happened after this, and the 1-1 draw was probably a fair result, with a much-improved Kitchee second half.

The second game against Kasetstart FC saw Calde make six changes to the starting lineup, with Anikar, Beattie, Tan Chun-lok, Juninho, Cheung Yiu-hin and Adrian Revilla starting. An early defensive mix-up almost allowed an early goal for our opponents, before Cheung Yiu-hin thought he might have had a penalty after being pulled down. Both sides had chances to take the lead, with Kasetstart probably the stronger of the two as the first half ended. Early in the second half Juninho cut in from the right to score a lovely goal, his second in preseason. But soon after Buddle was caught out on halfway, and the resulting counter saw Kitchee concede an equaliser. Slattery went close twice; first a tight offside ruled out his goal, before he blazed over with the goal at his mercy. As the game drew to a close Kasetstart carved Kitchee open to score a last minute winner.

It is always hard to know how much to read into preseason fixtures. Kitchee's travelling twenty four man squad included five of the six new signings, plus four youngsters promoted from the academy. You also had a number of players with very limited experience with the Kitchee first team squad. Mingazow did not feature in the first matchday squad, while Law Tsz-chun missed both games- we assume this is due to injury. Combined with a new coach with limited time to work with the players, you can therefore see positives even if Kitchee were winless. Lots of different combinations were used, with the flexibility allowing previously subbed players to come back on meaning Calde got to see how players worked together, which will go a long way towards working out the best starting line up to play his style of football. The club also played a behind closed doors game which further allowed opportunities for players to impress. From the two televised games, fans noted that the younger players look sharper and more ready for senior football than in previous years, and with a smaller squad they are likely to get opportunities, especially if no more signings come in.

Chiangrai highlights

Kasetstart highlights

25/26 season

Still nothing official yet, but other media such as SportsRoad and SCMP have hinted that the new season will start at the end of August (presumably the last weekend, just before Hong Kong travel to Thailand for the Kings Cup). It seems the format will be changed slightly with a ten team league- a double round robin as before, and then the top and bottom halves will split for an additional single round robin within the group (as the HKPL has done previously), meaning each side plays twenty two league games. Teams will also have the Senior Shield and FA Cup, alongside a new competition, highly likely to have no limitations on foreign players, meaning teams will play a minimum of 25 games in all competitions. These structures, as well as our home ground can expect to be officially confirmed in the coming couple of weeks. 

Please follow us on social media to stay up to date with the latest Kitchee news. We recently passed 500
followers on Instagram and are at over 400 on Facebook.

 Facebook Instagram

Thanks to Kitchee (via Chiangrai United and Kasetstart FC) for the photos.