University of San Francisco Athletics

It is often said that in order to achieve excellence, one must push themselves beyond their limits. Be comfortable being uncomfortable. Matthew Orr embodies just that. In his tumultuous journey to becoming Kitchee SC and Hong Kong’s talisman, he’s encountered many setbacks. However, he never once let them deter him from what he always wanted: to be a Professional Footballer.

An attacker to be more specific, and he hasn’t done a half bad job. Leading the line for his country and cementing a spot as part of a Kitchee SC front-three which boasts the Asian Champion League’s All-Time top-scorer: Dejan Damjanovic. In the last few months, he helped Hong Kong qualify for their first AFC Cup in 55 years, recording two goals and an assist as they progressed, while starting all six of Kitchee’s ACL group stage games as they qualified for the Knockout stage for the first time ever.

Nonetheless, his story isn’t like most lethal forwards’ either. Matthew’s talents were almost wasted as a defender prior to becoming a professional. As a student-athlete at the University of San Francisco and the University of Syracuses’ Football programs in the US from 18 to 22, Matt had to make many adjustments to try and settle in. Off the pitch, he was no stranger to the US after moving there at 15 to attend the illustrious high-performance IMG Academy (Alma Mater of ex-US internationals such as Michael Bradley and Landon Donovan), but on the pitch what came next shocked Matt. 

“I have always been an attacking player. That’s all I’d played as for years at Kitchee and IMG. During one of my first training sessions at USF, we were doing a finishing drill and I couldn’t miss. Everything I touched was going in. Our Head Coach then pulls me aside after training. I was thinking he was going to talk to me about my role in the team as an attacker after watching me during training. He asked me, “have you ever played as a defender?” I didn’t even know how to respond. That was his plan for me. Our Assistant Coach Alex Yi (a former MLS and Belgian Pro League defender) reiterated his point and told me he thought I could become a great defender. I wanted nothing more than to play so I sort of blindly agreed.” He still earned honors by being selected to the West Coast Conference (WCC) All-Freshman Team in 2016 and winning the WCC in 2017. He slowly moved into a more attacking role, progressing to left full-back. 

It was a difficult change, moving from one end of the pitch to the other. Matt’s height (6' 2") and physique that he developed since moving to the US allowed him to win aerial challenges, and his technical ability from his days further up the pitch made him extremely useful in USF’s build-up play. 

However, in an honest account, he says “I was an awful defender and hated defending. I took every opportunity I had to get up the pitch and contribute that way.” His performances were solid, but that wasn’t where he was meant to be, his coaches back home knew this and deep down he did too. 

As a part of the Hong Kong age-group national teams and Kitchee’s Youth set-up growing up, he had earned a reputation as an exciting and important attacking player. So when he would link up with either set-up they still viewed him as a vital cog in their attack, leaving Matt stuck in two worlds.

“I found myself pleading with both sets of staff to let me stick to a position. I would constantly have conversations with my coaches in the US about being an attacker, and vice versa. I just wanted to focus on one position, hone in on my skills for that position and develop as best as I could. Unfortunately, they had different opinions of how I fit in their systems, so at some point I just gave up on trying and just focused on what I could control.”

He did just that, accepting the circumstances that he was in, pushing himself to be a better player every day, be it as a defender or a forward. He did extra work every day knowing he needed to be more agile, stronger in 1v1s and a better crosser to improve as a defender. On the flip-side, he needed to improve his touches in and around the box and his finishing to develop as a forward. It wasn’t easy but he found comfort in being uncomfortable, grinding and not moaning about the predicament he found himself in.

Whilst all of this was going on, Matt was still doing amazing things. In fact, while he was still a student and defender at USF, he featured for Hong Kong against Singapore in the AFC U23 Qualifiers in 2019 as a forward.
 

Furthermore, the reputation he had built as a youngster at Kitchee’s Academy had never faded, if anything it had grown stronger while he was in the US. With every opportunity he had to return to Hong Kong since leaving, he found himself back at Kitchee’s training alongside his former teammates. And with each trip back, his rate of improvement was clear for everyone to see, especially for Kitchee’s now head coach: Alex Chu or Chu Sir as he’s known to Kitchee’s Academy players (Socccerkakis).