Entertaining draw with North District, big win away at Kowloon City and Movember campaigning starts

By Adam O'Domhnaill

This week has seen Kitchee play their first official home game against North District, ending in a thrilling 3-3 draw. We also travelled to Kowloon City and won convincingly. In between, Angry Boundary Street's campaigning for men's health, working with Movember and the Hong Kong Cancer Fund got underway. Find out more later on in the article.

Kitchee 3 North District 3

Lineup

There was still no Illarramendi, with his return waiting again. Kitchee made two changes from last week's draw at Tai Po, with Mingazow and Juninho's energy off the bench earning them starts for Kitchee's first home game of the season. Kendy and Jordan dropped to the bench. Impressive youngster Ari Lam started for the third game in a row. Kitchee sought revenge on North District who knocked them out of the Senior Shield in September.

Wang; Ari Lam (Law 61), Riera, Dantas, Beattie; Lok (c), Martinez (Chan 85); Kanda (Kendy 69), Juninho (Jordan 61), Mingazow, Adrian

Unused subs: Haddow, Lung, Tuscany, Slattery, Jason Kam, Li Siu-hin

Match events

Martinez went close for Kitchee, with Granada going close for North District. It was all Kitchee to start, with Juninho and Martinez going close. Juninho's cross caused problems but couldn't be poked in, and he had a goal ruled out for a questionable offside decision. As the halfway point of the half approached Wong Chun-ho inadvertently diverted the ball past his own keeper, before Granada equalised soon after, also from a freekick. Mingazow's cross was headed goalwards by Juninho, but the keeper proved equal to it. As the second half started North District pushed on, with Villalobos giving them the lead with a long range effort. Substitute Jordan Lam, formerly of North District, opened his Kitchee account moments later, heading in Mingazow's cross. Some good linkup play on the right saw Mingazow give Kitchee the lead with just over ten minutes left, and Martinez almost scored a fourth. But two minutes from time North District pegged Kitchee back, as North District's fancy freekick routine caught Kitchee off guard, allowing Jahangir Khan to score from outside of the box and level the scores. Two draws in a row for Kitchee, but they are second with a game in hand on first placed North District.

Kowloon City 0 Kitchee 5

Team news

Kitchee made three changes, with Dantas suspended with two of his yellow cards last season carrying over to join his three this campaign. Jason Kam Chi-kin stepped in at centre back, with Kendy replacing the injured Mingazow in midfield, and Law came in at right back. Illarramendi and Kim Shin-wook both came off the bench; Illarramendi for his debut and Wookie for his first league game in nearly 800 days (when he scored a hat trick against HKFC in August 2023).

Wang; Law, Riera, Jason, Beattie; Martinez, Lok (c) (Illarramendi 74); Kanda (Li 64), Kendy (Lung 64), Juninho (Haddow 64), Adrian (Kim 64)

Unused subs: Tuscany, Slattery, A Chan, Ari, Cheung

Match events

Kanda pressed hard and won the ball, but he fired wide, before Juninho's corner hit Martinez and was easily dealt with. Just past halfway through the half, Riera found Adrian with a long pass, and he played in Martinez down the right. Martinez then slowed down play, and cut it back for Adrian to head home for his fifth goal of the season. Adrian and Martinez linked up again, setting up to Juninho to double the lead just before half time. In the eleven minutes after half time, Kitchee ran riot, with Adrian and Martinez heavily involved; Adrian floated the ball in, Martinez had a shot saved, and then Kanda finished off the rebound. Soon afterwards Kanda crossed from the right, Adrian and Martinez challenged for it, and Juninho tapped in at the back post. Four minutes later Juninho scored again, as Martinez and Kanda played him in for his hat trick, the first by a Kitchee player since September 2024 when Sherzod Temirov scored one off the bench against Kowloon City. The comfortable lead allowed Calderon to empty the bench, with Kitchee's front four being brought off with twenty five minutes to go, and Tan Chun-lok getting a well-earned rest later on. We saw the veterans Kim Shin-wook (first HKPL game for over two years) and Asier Illarramendi (Kitchee debut) both come on, along with cameos for players who haven't featured as much in recent weeks.

Fans feedback

The team is very good going forward, but did ship three goals to North District for the second time this season. That being said, they are a very good side who have impressed a lot of observers this season. We're seeing Calderon being prepared to mix things up and make changes between games as well as during, with different players being used in different roles rather than the rigidity we saw from previous coaches who tended to start the same eleven most weeks. We're seeing Adrian drop deep which does sometimes leave us light on options in the box, although at Kowloon City we saw Juninho, Martinez and Kanda push up more and give us options. The comfortable nature of Sunday's win meant Adrian, Kendy, Kanda and Juninho could all get twenty-five minutes rest.

What's next for Kitchee?

We take on Southern District on Saturday in Aberdeen, 3pm kick off. This is soon followed by two home games for Hong Kong in the November. There is a friendly vs Cambodia on the 13th (Hong Kong Stadium) and the winner takes all Asian Cup Qualifier vs Singapore on the 18th at Kai Tak. Four Kitchee players were named in Hong Kong's 34 man preliminary squad. Regulars Tan Chun-lok and Juninho were selected as expected, with Callum Beattie getting his first international callup, after completing the naturalisation process in August. But the biggest surprise was Wang Zhenpeng getting a recall, having not played for Hong Kong since June 2022, and if he plays any part in either game he would become Hong Kong's oldest ever player.

Some of our fans are fundraising for men's health throughout this month, moving as much distance as possible for men's health, alongside Movember and the Hong Kong Cancer Fund. More details are on our social media pages. So far we have collectively moved 150km and raised £47/HK$480.

Movember 

Hong Kong Cancer Fund 

Please follow us on social media to stay up to date with the latest Kitchee news. We're approaching 550 followers on Instagram and are at over 400 on Facebook. Facebook Instagram

Scoop Facebook Instagram

Match highlights