Canadians Luk and Lam will be part of Hong Kong’s most passionate derby By Steven Sandor Posted on April 4, 2013 1 0 763 Share on Facebook Share on Twitter Two Canadian players will have a lot to say over the fate of the Hong Kong first-division race and that association’s FA Cup. This Sunday, Kitchee SC, which features Edmonton’s Matt Lam, will face its rival, South China AA, in the first leg of the FA Cup semifinal. South China AA is home to former Toronto Lynx defender Michael Luk. The two clubs are the class of Hong Kong football. And, over the course of the next four weeks, the teams will meet three times. They have FA Cup legs on Sunday and on April 28, and meet in league play on April 14. South China leads Kitchee by two points in the table — and Lam’s side hasn’t helped itself by drawing its last two matches against inferior opposition. Lam — who spent 2012 with FC Edmonton — has started the last two games for Kitchee. And, ironically, he had initially been contacted by South China after he became a free agent. He could have been Luk’s teammate if the South China interest had turned into a contract. But Kitchee saw the opportunity and swooped for Lam. Matt Lam Lam hasn’t talked to Luk, but they do have a mutual friend. Lam’s former FC Edmonton teammate, Dominic Oppong, played with Luk growing up in the Toronto area. “I haven’t talked to him,” Lam said. “But we play them one more time in the league, and we’ve drawn them for the semifinal of the FA Cup, so there are two more games there.” Lam knows that Kitchee’s recent run of poor results has put it in a bad position — but it can recover if it can take three points from South China in their final league match of the season. “We definitely can’t be losing any points regardless, but to make up ground and make sure we have a chance, we need to win that game, for sure.” Check out the upcoming issue of Inside Soccer (No. 101) for my in-depth Q and A with Matt Lam — why he moved to Hong Kong, football in Asia and more!
