Big Trouble with Little Hong Kong
As far as footballing nations go, China and Hong Kong are a long way down the list but one match between the two nations in 1985 caught my imagination many years ago.
I am a stickler for football off the beaten track, you can call me a hipster if you like, but I find the lesser-told stories about the beautiful game absolutely fascinating and this story about one match in the midst of qualification for the 1986 World Cup in Mexico absolutely blew my mind.
I’ve always thought of Hong Kong as minnows, nobodies, to use a Scottish phrase, albeit with less sugarcoating, a diddy team.
But a delve into the past reveals Hong Kong have more to them than being the venue for Seven-a-side teams of former English Premier League and other football luminaries competing usually for charity.
They finished third in the inaugural Asian Cup, hosted by them in 1956 in a round-robin format alongside South Korea, Vietnam and Israel, their only loss coming in their opening match to the Israelis by 3 goals 2 — and that was despite leading twice.
In their second match, they led 2–0 against eventual winners South Korea, who had been to their debut World Cup two years previously but could only hold on for a draw and it was the same result in their final match against Vietnam, although they had to twice come from behind for a share of the spoils.
They would qualify again in 1964, finishing 4th in another round-robin and fifth in 1968, both of those were bottom-placed finishes, but they were at the early tournaments and were a part of getting the AFC Asian Cup off the ground, especially important when you consider that the first UEFA Euros were not until 1960.
Because of the Chinese Civil War, the development of football in China was hampered significantly, owing to FIFA recognising the Republic of China (Taiwan) and the People’s Republic of China as different countries, as a result of this, China PR withdrew from international competition, choosing only to play against sides who saw them as the heirs to the China affiliation to FIFA from 1931 and would not return to the fold in Asian until 1974 and then were re-admitted to FIFA in 1979.
Despite those years in the comparative wilderness, China would experience unprecedented success as they reached the semi-finals of the 1976 Asian Cup, after drawing and losing their group stage matches against Kuwait and Malaysia.
Although they lost the semi-final to an Iran side very much in their pomp at that time, they would finish third at the tournament courtesy of a goal from He Jia against Iraq in the Third Place match.
They failed to live up to expectations in 1980, finishing second bottom of their group and with a record that ranked them 8th out of the 10 qualified nations but the feelgood factor was back as a result of a near-miss in the 1982 World Cup qualifiers.
1982 saw an expansion of the World Cup from 16 to 24 teams, with increased participation open for Asia and Oceania, as one confederation, Africa and North America.
China eased through the first group stage, beating Japan and Macau where they would face Hong Kong for a place in the final round.
The match with the Hongkongers would go the distance with China eventually prevailing on penalties, they were through to the final stage where the top two would qualify for the finals in Spain.
As it turned out, China only just missed out on a place in the finals as they finished level on points and goal difference with New Zealand and behind Kuwait before losing out in a playoff to the Kiwis 2–1 in Singapore.
China took the momentum from this brush with the World Cup in the 1984 Asian Cup in Singapore, scene of their World Cup playoff heartbreak, they would ease through the group stage and then saw off Kuwait, the holders, in the semi-finals but heartache in Singapore would continue for the Chinese as they were defeated in the final by the emerging Saudi Arabians.
So by the time China and Hong Kong were drawn together in the preliminary round of qualifying for the 1986 World Cup along with Macau and Brunei, China was very much a team on the up — but it didn’t go quite to plan off the bat as Hong Kong would stun their much larger neighbours by holding them to a goalless draw at home.
China followed up that result with a 4–0 win in Macau whereas Hong Kong won 8–0 at home to Brunei.
The next round saw China take the initiative as they put 12 unanswered goals past Brunei (8–0 in Macau and 4–0 in Hong Kong)
With time off, China watched as Hong Kong also beat the other two sides in the group soundly, Hong Kong would win 5–1 in Brunei and 15 days later they beat Macau 2–0 at home.
China returned to qualifying action on May 12th, defeating Macau 6–0, this meant that it would all come down to one match between China and Hong Kong on May 19th in Beijing.
Goal difference meant that China only needed a point, and was rightly considered to be the favourites — but if Hong Kong won they would go through instead.
Surely unthinkable, right?
80,000 people packed into the Workers Stadium in Beijing in expectation rather than hope to see China see off Hong Kong and join Japan, Indonesia and South Korea in a mini-tournament, the winner of which would advance to the World Cup in Mexico to join Iraq, who had beaten Syria to reach the finals.
There were twenty minutes on the clock when the crowd were to be silenced, a free-kick from range was given to Hong Kong and it was touched into the path of Cheung Chi Tak, who smashed the ball into the top corner of the Chinese goal to give Hong Kong an improbable lead.
The hosts wouldn’t be behind for long, however, ten minutes to be exact as Li Hui finished well beyond Chan Wan Ngok in goal for Hong Kong and China were back in the driving seat and on their way through once again, the crowd were satisfied.
But then, on the hour mark came the stunning blow and as a result, the most famous goal in Hong Kong football history as they threw men forward, the ball was scraped into the path of midfielder Ku Kam Fai who finished with aplomb to stun China and send Hong Kong through to the next round.
And this is why this match goes down in history.
The Chinese fans were incensed and began to react violently, bottles and chair legs rained down on both sets of players from the enraged home supporters in reaction to their humiliation, forcing the players to seek refuge inside the bowels of the Workers Stadium.
Outside, the fans continued to riot, overturning the Chinese team bus and cars were stoned and set ablaze in a wave of anti-foreign vitriol that spanned from a lost football match, thirty people were injured as the police waded in to stem the violence, which saw 127 people arrested.
News of the riot reached New York, with the famed New York Times talking of death threats made to foreigners in the wake of the rampage following the loss as well as spitting at Western photographers.
As it turned out, after all the drama, Hong Kong would go on to lose in the next round of qualification 5–1 on aggregate to Japan, who then went on to lose to South Korea themselves in the final round.
For China, however, World Cup agony would continue.
They finished in 4th place out of 6 and only one point off qualification for the finals of Italia 90 and finished 2nd in their preliminary group for USA 94 behind Iraq.
They missed out on a playoff place for France 98 by a point, but were it not for a costly defeat to Qatar at home, they may well have made it, but the agony would end in 2001 when they finally made it to the finals, to be held the following summer on Asian soil, in South Korea and Japan as they breezed through their final round group containing the United Arab Emirates, Uzbekistan, Qatar and Oman with just one defeat and two goals conceded.
Although that remains their only qualification for a World Cup finals to date, they certainly had to wait their turn — even resorting to a riot after a shock defeat.
It’s fair to say even from then to 2001 that Chinese football has changed dramatically — it has done so yet again from then until today and I feel like China will eventually establish themselves at the top table in Asia after years of setbacks and riots, as talked about here.
