The SAR men’s team, drawn in Pool A alongside Shandong, Tianjin and Inner Mongolia, understands the scale of the task.
Cado Lee acknowledged Shandong’s pedigree as past champions but emphasised that his team is drawing on experience.
“We’ve beaten them before, but there are some details that the coach hopes we can improve upon,” he said.
“We know their passes are long, so they can utilise the whole width of the field, which often causes us to lose our positions.
“In the past two weeks, we have been actively working on our defence because we know that if we just focus on our game, we can score without issues.”
Adding another layer to their challenge is the National Games’ unique format, which features two nine-minute halves instead of the standard seven.
Lee said the team has been focusing heavily on building the stamina required for the extra four minutes of total play.
“We realised that throughout the season, our fitness level isn’t as strong as before. We may have made progress in our physical shape or strength, but our speed and overall fitness levels were lacking a bit,” he said.
“I hope that when people come to watch us next week, they don’t just see us pushing through tackles but see that our entire team is fit enough to play the full 18 minutes.”
On the women’s side, co-captain Natasha Olson-Thorne echoed the sentiment in the squad that their Shandong counterparts would be fierce competitors.
Her team is in Pool D with Shandong, Shanghai and Sichuan.
“We know that they’re going to be fast. We know that they’re going to be physical, and so we know that going into the game, we need to be matching them in their speed and their physicality,” Olson-Thorne said.
“We’re focusing on keeping our processes, keeping our systems and just making sure that we do the best that we can on the day.”
The final squads representing Hong Kong at the Games will be announced on Monday.
