Hong Kong boss Andersen names 25-man squad for games against Myanmar, but CSL players all miss out
- Seven Kitchee players selected along with two out of contract players Sean Tse and Philip Chan
- Andersen’s side play Myanmar twice this week as part of the ongoing preparation for next year’s Asian Cup finals
Hong Kong boss Jorn Andersen has named seven Kitchee players in his 25-man squad for this week’s matches against Myanmar, but opted not to pick any players based in mainland China.
Among those missing are striker Matthew Orr, midfielder Tan Chun-lok, and Yu Tze-nam, who moved from Eastern to Meizhou Hakka at the beginning of the season. Leung Nok-hang and Vas Nunez have also been omitted.
But defender Helio Goncalves, who made himself unavailable for the Asian Cup qualifiers and the East Asian Championship this summer, is in the squad, as are Sean Tse Ka-keung and Philip Chan Siu-kwan.
The pair have been picked despite being without clubs, and Tse has returned from his base in England in order to play this week.
Eastern full-back Alex Jojo, a former Hong Kong Under-23 member, has been promoted to the senior squad, while his teammate, goalkeeper Yapp Hung-fai also returns to the national team set-up after missing the East Asian Championship because his wife was pregnant.
Kitchee started their Hong Kong Premier League campaign on Sunday with a 10-0 thrashing of Sham Shui Po, and of that team Paulo Argolo, Law Tsz-chun, Cheng Chin-lung, Alex Akande and Fernando Pedreira have been named in Andersen’s squad.
The team will conduct its first training session at the Tseung Kwan O Football Training Centre on Monday, before their first match against the Southeast Asian visitors two days later, a training game to be played behind closed doors at Mong Kok Stadium.