2018 AFC Champions League

[trainer001]

Just looked at the draw, if Suwon get through the playoff, they will be in group H. In looking at the group I started thinking that Suwon was previously in a group with those same teams. So I went looking and was correct. The 2011 edition group H had Suwon, Kashima, Sydney and Shanghai Shenhua in the same group with Suwon topping the group on goal differential over Kashima and Suwon made it to the semifinal round where they got into a fight with Al-Sadd (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xidChBd9BM8) I was in the supporters section the night of the fight! Maybe the 2018 edition will be good to the Bluewings as well.

[MipoFanatic]

Suwon vs. Eastern would be tasty.

[Holyjoe]

Despite the AFC's best efforts to engineer a West Asian winner of the tournament, Al Saad's controversial 2011 run to the title is still the only win by a West Asian side since Al Ittihad defended their crown in 2005..

[RoqueJunior]

Suwon Bluewings continues their pre-season form with another win in the ACL play-offs. The new players were good once again. Let's see how they will do against tougher opponents in the group stage. Their group seems to be quite strong.

[paquebot]

Nice to see a 'smaller' club like Kitchee make it to the group stage. Not sure that they'll pick up any points, but at least they'll have the opportunity.

Also, I don't follow Uzbek football that closely, but I'm surprised neither Pakhtakor nor Bunyodkor qualified for the AFC CL this season.

[RoqueJunior]

Yes, it's a surprise. Korean teams groups are not easy. Jeonbuk seems to have the bigger chances to qualify.

[MipoFanatic]

Nice to see a 'smaller' club like Kitchee make it to the group stage. Not sure that they'll pick up any points, but at least they'll have the opportunity.

Oops, thanks for the reminder. They qualified directly to the group stage, which I had completely forgotten about (as I had been tracking the progress of Eastern through the qualifiers).

[eujin]

How do the Hong Kong teams rank against the teams from Thailand, Vietnam, Singapore and Indonesia? I know that some of the Thai teams (Buriram?) have some money-bags owners behind them and some of the Indonesian sides get home gate many times what Korean teams draw. Are the Hong Kong sides smaller than the South-east Asian sides? I remember one of my uni mates turning out for the Hong Kong Football Club which told me everything I need to know about their strength in depth.

[MipoFanatic]

The HK Premier League isn't a fantastic competition. Kitchee and Eastern are usually miles ahead of the rest (although Eastern is struggling this season).

HKFC is a yo-yo club that bounces between the Premier League and the First Division. They struggled in the Prem last season, picking up just two wins and no draws in 20 games, and were part of the most lopsided scoreline of the season (a 10-0 loss to Kitchee). They also field a reserve side - might that be where your friend played?

[Rothesay Saint]

Last time I saw a game in Hong Kong was in 2010 and South China were the big team with their big stadium. They appear to have done a Rangers (not the Hong Kong one) and disappeared from the league.

[MipoFanatic]

Kitchee 1-0 Kashiwa Reysol in the group stage! The J.Leaguers picked up a red card, and the Hong Kong side scored the winner in stoppage time.

[paquebot]

Didn't realize that Diego Forlan is playing for Kitchee these days.
YouTube video with highlights including the red card and goal here:

[eujin]

The red card is very harsh. Even a yellow is harsh there as the guy is just asleep. But it sounds like there was an excellent atmosphere and the away support was decent too.

[OttoSilver]

I would love to know that the explanation for the red card was. "Not only did you miss the ball because the guy behind you pushed you, but I'm going to send you off for allegedly tripping that guy behind you with, urm, a fart. Yea, that's it. That's what happened. Get!"

[eujin]

Good results in this week's matches for Jeonbuk and bottom of the K-League Ulsan who beat Melbourne 6-2. Both teams are now through to the next round with one match left to play. Jeju are now eliminated and Suwon managed to make things interesting by losing 4-1 at home to Sydney. Suwon need to win away in Kashima to be sure of going through.

Last year's finalists, Al-Hilal, have also been eliminated in the group stage.