Tiny Timor should prove no trouble for Hong Kong in qualifying clash

On paper, East Timor are one of the weakest teams in world football. This should be encouraging for Hong Kong when they take on the Timorese in the idyllic island of Bali today in the opening round of 2010 World Cup Asian zone qualifiers.

'We are quite confident even though we know nothing about their football. But I would expect Hong Kong to do well,' said team official Albert Wong yesterday.

'An away win would be a great result, but we would be happy with even a draw or scoring an away goal.'

Hong Kong should not set their sights as low as a draw against a side ranked 200th in the world. There are not many more countries below East Timor in the Fifa rankings, and Hong Kong sit 66 places ahead.

Colonised by the Portuguese and formerly a part of Indonesia, East Timor became a sovereign state in 2002. A year later, the fledgling national team played their first international match against Sri Lanka, losing 3-2 in the Asian Cup. Things haven't got any better for the tiny nation's footballers since - they have still to win an international game.

Hong Kong coach Kenny Lai Sun-cheung will certainly not want his side to go down in history as the first team to lose to East Timor.

And this is probably why he will start with experienced goalkeeper Fan Chun-yip despite having included Citizen custodian Ho Kwok-chuen in the squad. Ho was tipped to make his Hong Kong debut, but according to Wong, the 37-cap Fan could still start. Perhaps Hong Kong do not want to take any risks of having egg rubbed all over their face by the Timorese.