There were limited games in the Hong Kong Football Association Championship due to the international break, which allows players to compete in the Hong Kong senior representative side’s Asian Cup Qualifying campaign.
Meanwhile, in the Yau Yee League the past week generally saw the leaders extend their leads in the standings in most of the competition’s divisions.
Yau Yee League
The Yau Yee League Division One title race remains close after the weekend’s action.
USRC retained the lead with a 2-0 win over Interglobo Colloids; Wanderers leapfrogged KCC Dragons after their 4-1 win over French Kiss; and KCC Dragons 1-0 defeat by The Store House Squadron.
USRC now lead Wanderers by two points and KCC Dragons by four. In other games GAS won 3-2 against Swiss XI and Colts won 3-1 against Antonhill.
In Sunday’s early game at Sports Road, HKFC Wanderers ran out comfortable winners 4-1 against French Kiss.
In a fairly open game Wanderers took the lead when Neil Shonhard picked up the ball midway in the French Kiss half on the left side of the pitch. He then ran 20 metres unchallenged into the penalty box before rifling a low shot past the goalkeeper into the centre of the net.
Wanderers doubled the lead in the 26th minute when a through ball was knocked forward from Steve Everest into the path of Shonhard breaking into the centre of the box for him to control immediately and fire a low shot past the goalkeeper.
Shonhard and Everest paired up again to increase Wanderers lead with a third goal in the 40th minute. Shonhard controlled a ball on the left touch line half-way into the French Kiss half and passed to Everest on the centre edge of the penalty box, who drove the ball into the net.
Wanderers took this 3-0 lead into the half time break.
In the second half, although Wanderers had a lot of possession and several chances they seemed to over complicate the play, which allowed French Kiss to break up their attacks. Also, with Wanderers having brought on Rory Hussey at half time to play forward (in place of right back Billy Dulieu) and play three at the back, Wanderers were sometimes exposed to a quick counter attack when French Kiss did break up the play.
Wanderers did eventually get some reward for their attacking endeavour in the 31st minute of the second half, when an attack ended with Hussey running into the right hand side of the six yard box and see his shot parried by the goalkeeper, only for Everest to follow in the rebound and drive the ball into the net.
The Wanderers pressure at times led to French Kiss breakaways requiring a couple of brave one-on-one saves from goalkeeper James Seddon, but the final one in the 82nd minute led to a three-on-one situation to end with a fine chip over the advancing Seddon by the French Kiss forward from a few yards outside the corner of the right hand side of the six yard box for their only goal.
The next few weeks should see the Division One leaders play each other culminating in the game between USRC and Wanderers on Dec 8 when a clearer picture of who the likely champions should appear.
In Division Two of the YYL, The Store House Hearts lead the division on 19 points, one point ahead of Mobsters, with a game in hand.
Hearts won 2-0 in a mid-week top of the table game against the Mobsters to claim bragging rights.
Faced with a further tough test, Mobsters entered the weekend’s matches in a three-way-tie in second place on points (with Boca Seniors and Azzurri), but fourth in the standings. Mobsters bounced back from that Hearts’ defeat to win 1-0 against Azzurri to take outright second in the standings.
Hearts and Boca Seniors had a bye.
In Division Three, HKU70’s remained joined in the leadership with WYFC06 after the former’s nil-all draw with Scorpions and the latter’s 4-all draw with OBA.
In the Division Four, IES maintained top spot after a 9-1 thrashing of Skyline, while Power 22 won 4-0 against Bapcoll to stay in one of the promotion places.
HKFA Championship
On Saturday (Nov 16), the only game played in the first two divisions was the HKFA Second Division re-arranged fixture between Lucky Mile and Kwai Tsing.
Played in the evening at Sports Road, Lucky Mile took the early initiative with a far post header in the fifth minute from Jordan Rhodes.
Scrappy play until half time led to few chances or goalmouth incidents from either side, for Lucky Mile to lead 1-0 at half time.
In the second half, Lucky Mile doubled their lead after five minutes only to see Kwai Tsing reduce the deficit 15 minutes later.
But Lucky Mile restored their two goal advantage in the 77th minute when a through ball found Stuart McInnes who finished neatly past the advancing goalkeeper.
Kwai Tsing again pulled a goal back in the 87th minute and Lucky Mile dug in to survive a tense and anxious last 8 minutes, given the lengthy injury time added by the officials.
This result eased Lucky Mile’s relegation worries and moved them up a place to eighth in the table over their day’s opponents, but had no impact on the division leaders.
The Third Division saw Yau Tsim Mong and Metro Gallery Sun Source extend their leadership position over the rest of the division. Yau Tsim Mong won 3-0 against Kwong Wah and Metro Gallery Sun Source won 3-1 against Fire Services. Yau Tsim Mong lead the table on 28 points with Metro Gallery Sun Source second on 27 points.
The Fourth Division is still led by GFC Friends by one point after their 2-1 win over Tung Sing, with Sai Kung second on 18 points after their 8-1 thrashing of Islands.
In coming matches in the HKFA First Division, table leaders Kitchee will meet mid-tabled I-Sky Yuen Long (sixth) on Saturday (Nov 23). The next day, fourth placed Easton Salon have a chance to climb over South China and Sun Pegasus into second-place (but with a games played advantage) when they meet lowly Sunray Cave. The only other game in the division between the BC Rangers (seventh) Royal Southern (eighth) on Saturday will likely be a close fought contest.
Hong Kong third in Asian Cup Qualifying
The Hong Kong senior representative side followed up Friday’s (Nov 15) 4-0 defeat to the U.A.E. in Abu Dhabi with a must win fixture against Uzbekistan at the Hong Kong Government Stadium on Tuesday evening (Nov 19).
But Hong Kong lost 0-2 making second beyond their reach in the four-nation Group E, which will see the top two qualify for the 2015 AFC Asian Cup in Australia.
Hong Kong have scored just one goal in these qualifiers, making their campaign hopes all the more difficult.
U.A.E. is likely to finish first having won all four of their Group E matches that they have played.
Uzbekistan, having won three and drawn once, need to win againgst U.A.E. in their final match to top Group E.
Hong Kong only won their first match against Vietnam and drew once away to Uzbekistan.
Vietnam, HK’s opponent in the final match in March, is winless.
