Hong Kong

Team Introduction: The Hong Kong Football Team of China is the official men's football team of Hong Kong and is managed by the Hong Kong Football Association. Although Hong Kong became part of the People's Republic of China after the handover of sovereignty in 1997, according to the Basic Law of the Hong Kong Special Administrative Region, Hong Kong is still allowed to continue to have its own representative team and participate under the name "Hong Kong, China". The Hong Kong Football Association was founded in 1914 and joined FIFA and the Asian Football Confederation in 1954. It is one of the founding members of the Asian Football Association. It hosted the first Asian Cup in 1956 and won third place; and the Hong Kong Olympic football team won the gold medal in football at the 2009 East Asian Games. The jersey sponsor of the Hong Kong Football Team is Adidas. Development History In 1949, the Hong Kong team lost to South Korea 2-5 in the first international competition. Four years later, the Hong Kong team defeated South Korea 4-0 and won its first international victory. The Hong Kong team reached the first four Asian Cup finals and won third place at home in 1956. Although the Hong Kong team never qualified for the World Cup finals, in 1974, the Hong Kong team faced Malaysia, Vietnam, and Japan in the World Cup Group A qualifiers, and defeated their opponents 1-0. Finally, they lost to the host South Korea 1-3 and fell into second place and failed to qualify. Members of the Hong Kong team that year formed the "Friends of Seoul" to gather regularly. In the qualifying round held in Singapore in 1977, under the leadership of Dutch coach Baochen, they defeated Indonesia and Thailand 4-1 and 2-1 respectively, and also defeated Singapore and Malaysia 2-2 and 1-1 respectively, successfully qualifying and advancing to the second round. In the first round of the 1986 World Cup qualifiers, the Hong Kong team defeated Brunei 8-0 at home on February 23, 1985. Chivalrous center Mak King-hun, who represented Hong Kong for the first time, scored four goals. The final match of this round was played against China in Beijing on May 19. The Hong Kong team had to win to qualify for the second round (China only had to draw a draw to qualify). In this match, with goals from Gu Jinhui and Zhang Zhide, the Hong Kong team won 2-1 and advanced to the second round of the qualifying round. However, they lost to Japan with a total score of 5:2. The Hong Kong team in the 1990s was at a time when Hong Kong football was entering its twilight period and was struggling to thrive. In the early 1990s, although the Hong Kong team retreated to the second and third tier in Asia, they still occasionally performed well in major competitions. For example, in the first round of the 1998 World Cup qualifiers, they defeated Southeast Asian powerhouse Thailand 3-2 at home. They also lost only two goals to the Asian tiger South Korea in a strong home battle. All of these were the hard work of the Hong Kong team. However, a match-fixing incident occurred in the same event. Forward Wei Junlong, goalkeeper Lu Jiarong, defender Chen Zhiqiang, winger Chen Zijiang and others who were of playing age were sentenced to jail for manipulating the game, which made Hong Kong football even worse. After the handover of Hong Kong's sovereignty in 1997, the Hong Kong team has since been required to participate in international competitions under the name "Hong Kong, China". In the late 1990s, the Hong Kong team continued to perform poorly and was eliminated from the Asian Games football qualifiers with a net loss of 11 points in two games. In the first round of the 2002 World Cup qualifiers, the Football Association hired Dutch coach Lisa Wan in the hope that the Hong Kong team would achieve good results, and also frequently invited foreign teams to visit for practice matches. In the end, because the players had difficulty adapting to the coaching style and the Football Association had no long-term plan, the team ended up with poor results. On November 17, 2004, China defeated Hong Kong 7-0 in the fourth group of the second round of the 2006 World Cup-Asian qualifying round, but still missed the third round. The reason was that Kuwait, which had the same points as China before the game, defeated Malaysia 6-1 and won more goals than China to advance to the third round. The 7-0 score made fans feel that the Hong Kong team was under pressure from the top management of the Football Association and was suspected of "cracking fake games" and "letting go". Some people think that the key is that Fan Junye successfully saved Zheng Zhi's penalty kick, which caused China to get fewer balls than Kuwait and was eliminated. After the game, many Hong Kong fans believed that Fan was the only player in the Hong Kong team who fought hard and was the light of the Hong Kong team. However, the Oriental Daily published a headline the next day that ridiculed "Fan Junye is trying to be brave". However, Fan Junye's outstanding performance was also noticed by Chinese football clubs, who planned to invite him to play in the Chinese Super League. On February 9, 2005, the Hong Kong Football Association and the Brazilian Football Association held a friendly match to celebrate their 90th anniversary. The Hong Kong team faced Brazil at home. As a result, Brazil defeated the Hong Kong team 7-1. In the early years, the Hong Kong team was often invited to participate in the Merdeka held in Malaysia and achieved good results. The annual Hong Kong and Macao inter-port football match was held for the 60th time in 2005. There are also other competitions such as the Provincial Hong Kong Cup Inter-port Football Match, the Hong Kong-Shanghai Cup Inter-port Football Match and the Lunar New Year Football Exhibition Match. However, due to the strength of the Hong Kong team, the Football Association sometimes selects the Hong Kong United team to play. Some foreign players who play in the local League A have obtained Hong Kong permanent residency and SAR passports, so they can represent Hong Kong in international competitions. These naturalized players include early Michael McGuire, recent Lawrence, Cameroonian Zhuo Zhuo, Gao Nilu, etc. Some local foreign players such as Barberi have also represented Hong Kong in official international competitions. World Cup record 1930 to 1970 - Not participating 1974 to 2006 - Qualifying round Asian Cup record 1956 - Third place 1960 - Qualifying round 1964 - Fourth place 1968 - Fifth place 1972 to 2004 - Qualifying round 2007 - Qualifying round out East Asian Championship record 2003 - Fourth place 2005 - Second place in qualifying round