Posted in News on May 23, 2007.
This time around the Chiefs head of delegation, Vincent Williams is confident that the u-19’s, coached by former Chiefs midfielder Donald ‘Ace’ Khuse, will be able to go one better than they did in 2006, and will make it all the way to the final game of the competition. The young Chiefs will play three games during the round-robin stage of the thirty-two team competition and a top two finish in their group will see them move onto the knock out stage of the competition.
In May last year the Chiefs U–19’s made their inaugural appearance at the Hong Kong Football Club where the Hong Kong Sevens Competition is being held. They went through their group matches undefeated as they opened up the competition with a 2-0 win over Hong Kong FC Team 2.
They followed that up with a draw against Chinese team Sun Hei before creating the talking point of the day when they managed a 1-0 win against the pre tournament favourites Manchester United. Talking to kaizerchiefs.com as he was about to board a plane bound for Hong Kong, Williams was upbeat about the U-19’s chances in the former British Colony.
“Most of the players in the team have played in the PSL reserve league over the past month or so, that has given them a good grounding going into this competition. We have prepared well and the good thing is we know what to expect in terms of the weather, food and general conditions when we get there as we have our past experience to count on.”
Under 19’s coach Ace Khuse was also looking to draw on last years experience towards helping his team returning home victorious from Hong Kong, saying “We know that we are up against tough opposition in Hong Kong. Last year we played five games that were very physically demanding encounters. Sevens soccer is obviously much faster than what we are used to but I do feel that we have prepared well for this year's tournament and we are confident that we will be able to, once again, cause an upset or two.”
Once they had progressed to the quarterfinal stage in 2006, Ace Khuse’s team continued to upset the formbook, and sent another British team, this time in the form of Glasgow Celtic, crashing out of the cup. The young Chiefs dream of reaching the final was not to be as Japanese club Urawa Red Diamonds overhauled them 3-1 in the penultimate stage to send them into the 3rd and 4th place play-off match.
The team are expected to arrive in Hong Kong early on Thursday morning and will hold their first practice session at the Hong Kong Football Club on Thursday afternoon. Ace Khuse’s team will get their tournament up and running with their first group game on Friday morning, and will be hoping to end off their campaign with an appearance in Sunday afternoon's final.
