Kitchee and South China Compete for the Hong Kong Jockey Club Community Cup 2014

The exciting Hong Kong Jockey Club Community Cup 2014 will take place in Mongkok Stadium tomorrow  afternoon. The much-coveted charity trophy will be contested by reigning league champion Kitchee and last season’s Playoffs winner South China. Kick-off time for the highly-anticipated match will be at 3:00pm.

Thanks to its participation in the AFC Cup, Kitchee has already been in mid-season form despite the local league program has yet to start. The reigning league title-holder has managed to push aside quality regional opponents and force its way into the Semi-final of the AFC Cup, a strong testament to the side’s overall quality and current form. Fernando Recio, Huang Yang, Lam Ka-wai and Juan Belencoso form a solid spine for the team and will fancy its chance for the charity trophy.

Kitchee’s influential midfielder Matthew Lam reveals he and his teammates are taking the Community Cup very seriously. “Facing our arch-rival South China always gets your competitive juices flowing and of course we want to win this game,” Lam stated. “However, the Community Cup is also a very worthy cause and we will be going all out to ensure we come up victorious, so that our nominated charity can benefit from a higher amount of donation.”

A new-look South China will be making its debut in front of local football fans in Sunday’s game. The side might have lost several of its old guards but new additions such as Cristian Mora, Evan Kostopoulos, Bojan Malisic, Andrew Russell, Yuto Nakamura and Manoel Santos should all prove to be capable replacements. Local veterans such as Chan Wai-ho and Chan Siu-ki are still with the club and their experience should help steady the transition phase of this new-look South China team.

Evan Kostopoulos, a summer capture of the Caroliners’, looks to get his South China career off to a good start with a strong game in the Community Cup. “We definitely want to start our season on a positive note with a victory this weekend. At the same time, it is great to have a charity game to kick-start the new season and we will do our best and come out with a win,” Kostopoulos claimed. “Kitchee has some highly-skilled players throughout their team but as long as we come up with a solid team performance, I think we will have a good chance to take home the trophy.”