South China, capitalising on Uhlsport-Rangers' dwindling fortunes both on and off the field and Chan Chi-keung's early sending off, stormed into the San Miguel FA Cup final after blitzing the defending champions 5-2 at Hong Kong Stadium yesterday.
Standing in the Caroliners' way of a second trophy for the season are Golden, who earlier needed a Ross Greer own goal in the last minute to secure a 3-2 win over Instant-Dict and a place in the April 21 final.
South China must fancy their chances in the Cup final as they seek to continue their dominance over Golden. They have beaten Golden three times this season including a 2-1 win in the Senior Challenge Shield final last December.
Rangers, a mere shadow of the team who took two Cups last season, fielded just two foreign players as they had to continue life without Croatian striker Marko Kraljevic. They were also missing goalkeeper Peter Guthrie, who wrenched his back in training last Monday and is expected to be out of action for another 10 days.
Despite the initial setback, Rangers got off to a promising start, taking a second-minute lead through a Tam Siu-wai penalty after Bulgarian defender-turned-striker Dimitri Kalkanov was brought down by goalkeeper Werner Kooistra.
However, the Caroliners, already with one hand on the league trophy, came back to level terms in the 17th minute with Ricky Cheng Siu-chung's first of two goals, a header from close range after meeting Chan Chi-hong's cross from the right.
