The Kaizer Chiefs U-19 team, along with their Coach Donald 'Ace' Khuse and the rest of the Amakhosi delegation, headed by the clubs youth development co-ordinator, touched down between the towering sky scrapers that form part of the sky line of Hong Kong, at the island city's ultra-modern Chek Lap Kok Airport early on Thursday morning to participate for the second year running in the Hong Kong Soccer Sevens Competition.

The U-19’s, who were eliminated at the semifinal stage of last year’s competition, are confident of going all the way this year and showed that they were in Hong Kong not just to make up the numbers but also to have the same kind of impact on the tournament, just as they did a year ago.

As they headed from the Airport straight to their downtown hotel, after a short rest and staving off the jet lag, Ace Khuse had his team out on the training ground for an early evening kick about which was mainly used by the team to get used to the hot and humid conditions.

While the temperatures soared in Hong Kong on Thursday, the hot and humid conditions are expected to continue over the weekend, with temperatures set to be around the lower to mid 30’s. The weather forecast has also said that there will be intermittent rain on Friday, Saturday and Sunday, which could give the young Chiefs some relief from the hot weather.

For Coach Ace Khuse acclimatizing to the conditions is the first step towards the young Amakhosi putting up a noteworthy display over the next couple of days. As Khuse explained “We achieved our first objective which was to get some rest as soon as we arrived, and thereafter go through our paces so that we can get a feel of what things will be like when the competition proper kicks off on Saturday.”

Friday will see the team train in the morning and the youngsters will have some time off to take in the sights of Hong Kong and will have an early night on Friday ahead of their opening fixture at 14h00 (08h00 am South African Time) on Saturday.

In their first group game Ace Khuse’s team will face a Hong Kong Football Club Chairman’s select team, thereafter there will be a sense of De Ja Vu for the Amakhosi as they face up to Glasgow Celtic of Scotland in their second group game. Chiefs will be looking to keep up the trend over the Scots and hold onto their Historical advantage over the Bhoys, as it was The Amakhosi who were the victors when the teams met at the quarterfinal stage of the competition in 2006.

They will round off their group games against another local team in the form of Happy Valley United. Progress to the knockout stage of the competition could see Ace Khuse’s team face European opposition in the form of Dutch powerhouse PSV Eindhoven’s U-19 team or Tottenham Hotspur.