The new season of First Division League soccer competition is only three weeks away, and the players from the Sham Shui Po Sports Association are ready for the challenge. Playing in the First Division is new to Sham Shui Po, who were promoted after their first-place finish in the Second Division last season.
The team have stayed busy. They played friendly matches as a warm-up for the season. They lost 4-1 to South China in the first friendly and drew 2-2 with Fourway Rangers.
Sham Shui Po, who played against the Hong Kong Under-18s last Friday, has shown improvement in both organisation and speed. They were unstoppable on the pitch at Shek Kip Mei Park and beat the junior national team 6-1.
Lee Chi-kin, the Sham Shui Po coach, was impressed by the team's overall performance, but he thought his players could have done better.
'Our players scored five goals in the first half, but they were slacking a bit at the end of the match. This gave the opponents a chance to score. That is unacceptable, especially as the team will face tough competition in the coming months,' Lee says. 'Friendly matches are a way for the players to learn to cope with the speed and atmosphere of the upcoming First Division matches. The results are not important, but in the future, I don't want to see them allow goals because of careless mistakes.'
The team have signed some overseas players to strengthen their line-up, but Coach Lee insisted the local young players will still be the heart of the squad.