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Paul McNamara

Although he cheesed off some of his England players when he accused them of being “sloppy” and committing “lots of technical mistakes” following their World Cup quarter-final victory over Norway this summer, Thomas Tuchel’s angst perhaps stemmed from the knowledge that a much tougher test was around the corner.
So it would prove, the head coach’s team punch-drunk by the end of their semi-final capitulation against Argentina.
For Tuchel two months ago, and indeed Alex Ferguson after the 1983 Scottish Cup final when he labelled his victorious Aberdeen side a “disgrace”, read Inigo Calderon, the Kitchee head coach, last weekend.
It has been a bright start to the local Premier League season, with four-figure crowds increasingly the norm for a regular diet of competitive and unpredictable matches.
Nonetheless, the acid test for whether we are seeing genuine improvement will be supplied when the AFC Champions League 2 begins this week.

With Tai Po a shadow of their former selves and probably in for a rough ride away against Adelaide City on Thursday, it is Kitchee that will shoulder the responsibility of positioning Hong Kong football back on the continental map.
They start against powerful Gangwon FC at Mong Kok Stadium, also on Thursday, but with the unheralded pair of Phnom Penh Crown and Kuching City completing their group, the local champions should have designs on becoming the first Hong Kong club to legitimately advance to a continental knockout round since they themselves did it in 2016.
Although Kitchee progressed in 2022, they needed only a pair of wins against Chiangrai United to escape their group in a truncated, joyless Covid-19-affected AFC Champions League.
Kitchee won 3-1 at Southern on Saturday, but any players expecting a pat on the back from their boss afterwards were in for a rude awakening. Calderon gathered his squad together on the boggy Aberdeen Sports Ground surface and issued a furious dressing down. When he had had his say, the Spaniard angrily marched alone back to the changing room.
His poise recovered about 45 minutes later, Calderon said that at 2-0 up and seemingly cruising, he suspected some players’ minds had begun drifting towards the more glamorous Gangwon fixture.
“When you’re winning, it’s easy to start thinking, ‘Let’s try to not get injured, I want to play on Thursday’,” Calderon said.
He accepted that self-preservation in the circumstances was natural, and Calderon had himself nodded towards the bigger test as he substituted a series of key figures.
The young right-back Jay Haddow’s reward for keeping going at full pelt was to sustain what he suspected was a hamstring tear in the closing minutes. Hobbling off to hospital afterwards, he was devastated.
With Victor Camarasa, the former Cardiff City midfielder, sent off shortly after Haddow’s enforced withdrawal, Kitchee found themselves down to nine men and under siege.
“Everything you don’t want when you talk about controlling a game,” Calderon said, alighting on the primary cause of his irritation.
Repeat their indiscipline against streetwise South Koreans Gangwon and Kitchee will be punished.
“We suddenly started missing easy passes,” Calderon said. “I don’t know if it’s because we were tired, or whether it was a lack of concentration. We were too open, which is the last thing you want when you’re winning.
“I hope they learn, and it’s always better to learn when you win. [Against Gangwon], we need to have more personality and to keep the ball better.”
Only midfielder Tan Chun-lok remains from the Kitchee team that last played an Asian match, the meaningless 2-0 win against Lion City Sailors in December 2023 that concluded an otherwise miserable group-stage effort.

Classy young defender Jason Kam Chi-kin, an unused substitute for three of those six matches, could potentially make his continental bow this week.
The 22-year-old grew in stature over 19 league appearances during a breakthrough campaign last season, emerging as one of Hong Kong’s most elegant and effective defenders, and winning the first of three senior international caps in March.
Kam has wanted for action this term following the summer arrivals of central defensive duo Dudu and Marcao, but he came on against Southern and was surely one of the players exempt from Calderon’s criticism.
“He told us we need to have the guts to play the ball and not just kick it away, even when we’re players down and the opponents all press,” Kam said.
“It’s more of a challenge for me this season, but mentally, I have to force it.
“Lots of young players have one big season, then disappear in the next one. I don’t want to be one of them.”
Preparing to manage in Asian competition for the first time, Calderon has leaned on the collective experience of Fernando Recio, Jordi Tarres and Ken Ng Kin, his assistant, technical director and boss, respectively. Recio and Tarres both played Asian football for Kitchee.
“I’m the new one here,” Calderon said, acknowledging that, for the first time since he took over last summer, Kitchee would enter a match “knowing that we are worse than our opponents”.
“We’ll have less of the ball, which is something we don’t really like,” Calderon said.
Calderon has occasionally deployed a back three and should he choose to go that way against Gangwon, it could open the door for Kam.
Regardless of his set-up, the Basque manager vowed to not compromise on his attacking ideals.
“When I was managing Bristol Rovers, we went to Ipswich in the FA Cup [in January 2025]; they were in the Premier League, but we didn’t change,” he said. “I don’t know another way, I can’t sit back and counter-attack.”
Music to the ears of Kam: christened Bec-Kam-bauer by supporters in recognition of his ability to surge from defence with the ball at his feet.
“The biggest challenge will be the tempo of the game; we don’t have enough quick matches in Hong Kong,” Kam said.
“I want to figure out the distance between us and the top Asian clubs, so it’ll be a valuable experience for me.”
Only last December, Kam questioned whether he was ready for Hong Kong recognition. Now he is prepared to acknowledge that he was disappointed to be told club duties would prevent him from competing in this month’s Asian Games.
Currently following a dedicated gym programme, and enthusiastically embracing the instruction to eat more as he fills out his long, slender frame, the 1.9-metre (6ft 3in) Kam, who added 7kg in the 2025 off-season, said: “You only get one chance to go to an Asian Games, but I accepted it. It’s just the way it is.
“I am believing in myself now. If I don’t, who will?”

With Kitchee since the age of eight, Kam said he had noticed “football in Hong Kong getting more attention”.
“But if we do well in ACL2, then there will be more attention from around the world,” he said. “Maybe more players will get opportunities in other countries.”
Still, Calderon neatly summed up the scale of Kitchee’s task against a Gangwon side currently fifth in their strong domestic league.
“If we play the perfect game, not like against Southern, and avoid them having a good game, we’ll have a chance,” he said.
Elsewhere, Premier League newcomers Supreme Sha Tin have parted company with head coach Kenneth Kwok Kar-lok. Appointed this summer after previous boss Lo Kwan-yee was arrested on match-fixing charges, Kwok was at the helm for only four matches.
He won his opening game against Eastern, but their 3-2 defeat by struggling Wofoo Kowloon City on Sunday was Supreme’s third straight loss and spelled the end for Kwok.


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AFC Cup

Kitchee players being put through their paces ahead of the challenging AFC Champions League 2 clash against Gangwon FC on Thursday. Photo: Handout

Inigo Calderon prepares his Kitchee side to tackle formidable Koreans Gangwon FC. Photo: Kitchee SC

Cheng Chin-lung of Kitchee (right) gets stuck into Kitchee defender Fabio Erins last Saturday. Photo: HKFA

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Sport

Football

Local champions poised to begin continental campaign against Gangwon FC at Mong Kok Stadium on Thursday


Local champions poised to begin continental campaign against Gangwon FC at Mong Kok Stadium on Thursday.


Kitchee SC

Inigo Calderon

Hong Kong Premier League on up but Kitchee face AFC Champions League test against Koreans

.css-1c6uqr6{color:inherit;font-weight:inherit;font-size:inherit;font-family:inherit;line-height:inherit;overflow-wrap:break-word;}Local champions poised to begin continental campaign against Gangwon FC at Mong Kok Stadium on Thursday

Local champions poised to begin continental campaign against Gangwon FC at Mong Kok Stadium on Thursday