HONG KONG—Khalsa A will have to be patient to learn who their rival finalist for this year’s Holland Cup will be after torrential rain on Sunday washed out the other semi-final between Hong Kong Football Club A and SSSC A.
But it should be a quick fire affair after HKFC and SSSC entered the second half, level on a 1-1 note before the sky opened up with the game less than nine minutes into play.
Richard Mak, the Chairman of the Men’s Section was adamant that the show would go on as both sides have to play the remaining 26 minutes of outstanding play, barring extra-time should the game remained deadlocked. The match is expected to be played this week, either Tuesday or Thursday, ahead of Sunday’s final at the newly renovated King’s Park.
“It’s a pity about the rain as both teams (HKFA and SSSC A) played outstandingly,” said Mak, who watched on the sidelines as the King’s Park pitch was unable to cope with the heavy downpour and became waterlogged within minutes of the red storm and thunder alert to curtail the game in front of a near capacity stadium.
Khalsa A on the other hand had no such problem after they literally tore apart Kowloon Cricket Club A on a 7-2 score with their Egyptian talismanic goal scorer, Ahmed Ewis who went on to grab four goals and was soon joined by Arshad Mohammad, Inderpal Singh and Lam Ka with a goal apiece.
Khalsa coach Harry Bal was jubilated with the result as he had anticipated a high-scoring result knowing his opponent were missing some key players as they notched up two goals within 5-minutes of play.
“We wanted to have a good start and then take it easy from there,” said Bal, whose team are now eyeing for a league treble—after clinching the Premier League, the one-day Guru Nanak Cup and now the Holland Cup.
As to which team he preferred, he said it did not matter as his side had held an unbeaten run this season—winning 14 and collecting two draws from the 16-match Premier League fixture.
His opposite number, Jackie Chan, had no words to describe their inability to match Khalsa, with their side missing players through a new KCC in-house ruling that only allowed club members to play for the club instead of recruits or guest players.
Compounding Chan’s headache was their keeper Kelson Wong, who held sway in the KCC goal despite running a fever after he was unable to find a replacement.
Despite the defeat, Chan was pleased with the way some of his youngsters played against veteran stars in the Khalsa camp.
