With the Hong Kong National Football Team now the talk of the town, Jaimes McKee, the striker with the expectations of the city on his shoulders, took some time to chat to Christopher KL Lau about the Maldives match and the upcoming fixtures looming on the horizon.
This World Cup group is like a ‘Lonely Planet 100 places to visit’ Guidebook: Bhutan, Maldives, Qatar… Are you really just going on holiday instead?
It is quite nice actually that we do get to do a bit of traveling! I know my family are quite happy about the locations and they are looking forward to the Maldives game particularly. I just need to find a way that I can get them some tickets! Obviously it will be nice but they will be tough games as well. It is an added bonus that we get to see a few different places, but yeah, they will be tough matches.
You have the expectations of an entire city on your shoulders now, is that pressure for you?
It is definitely a different experience to what I have experienced before. Definitely more pressure…especially in the last game when we saw all the fans. When I missed the first chance, I possibly felt that there was this weight of expectation on me. Scoring the second goal.. .scoring the goal soon after that helped but it was nice and a great experience at the end of the day with the packed stands… maybe just a little bit more pressure. Just got to have faith in the training and try not to think about it.
Since your last win last week, the Hong Kong media and general public have embraced the Hong Kong team like never before and the game tomorrow night has become the hottest ticket in town. Has this surprised you in anyway? Why the sudden huge surge in interest?
It is great that there is this surge in interest…I believe the poster (The CFA one and the HKFA response) had a lot to do with it and that got us a lot of media buzz and got us into many newspapers and this created a bit more awareness about the games so that has helped get more fans interested I think.
Over the years, the HK team has always had a very good following and this seems to be picking up and I don’t know if this is more to do with more promotion of the Hong Kong League by the HKFA has helped. It is nice to have so much interest in the game.
Given all the buzz about the posters, what defines a Hong Konger to you?
Hong Kong is such a multi-national…multi-
The Hong Kong versus China game in November is expected to be a total sell out, given all that has happened recently, will it just be another game for you?
I am not sure it will just be another game. It is going to be a special game. Obviously with all the build up some people are thinking about it right now and people are really aware of it. I think it will be a good game to look forward too and be excited about. We will need to prepare well and I am sure it will be good motivation if we have good results. It is good motivation to train hard… When the game comes around…to probably not get too nervous ….I don’t want to look at it as such a big game, but will use it to get motivated.
Will you score again Qatar and China?
I feel positive in my answers so I will say yes, you might as well believe that you can score.
Last but not least, McKee’s video message to all our offside.hk readers:
Photo and video credits: Christopher KL Lau (offside.hk)
