AFC Champions League 2: Lee Man claim first point after Tampines Rovers bore draw
New boss Matt Holland claims point, but dismal Mong Kok attendance provides fitting backdrop for drab affair
Lee Man salvaged a shred of respectability from their abortive AFC Champions League Two campaign with a drab 0-0 draw with Tampines Rovers on Wednesday.
The Hong Kong champions failed to score in any of their three home games, and never looked like correcting that failing against a Tampines side that played the better football, but could not convert their lion’s share of possession into any form of dominance.
If Lee Man’s inferior quality has been a theme of their competition, then so have the poor crowds watching them struggle. Only 669 bothered to show up for this Mong Kok Stadium stalemate.
The tiny showing could, perhaps, be excused on account of both sides already being eliminated. Lee Man’s ACL2 home matches attracted a total of 3,708 people, nonetheless, and their average attendance was 1,236.
Matt Holland, Lee Man’s new head coach, washed his hands of the team’s opening four ACL 2 performances when he spoke 24 hours before the game. In his first match, a 3-0 loss to Nam Dinh last week, and again here, the Welshman was given some insight into the issues that confronted predecessor Tsang Chiu-tat against continental opponents.
Tampines’ passing was crisper, and their movement sharper and more imaginative, than anything conjured by the hosts.
