Hong Kong Stadium

Thursday, February 19 at 2:15  a.m. ET (3:15  p.m. Hong Kong time)

LIVE on One World Sports, with replays at 9 a.m., 1 p.m.  and 7  p.m. ET on February 19. Follow @NYCosmos_Match  for live updates.

The 2015 Lunar New Year AET Cup, an annual football tournament organized in Hong Kong by the Hong Kong Football Association (HKFA) since 1948.

The name of the tournament has changed a few times over the years. Previously known as the Carlsberg Challenge or Carlsberg Cup (when Danish brewing company Carlsberg was the major sponsor; since 2007 it is  only a co-sponsor), it is held in celebration of the Chinese New Year, typically on the first and fourth days of the year. During 2011 and 2012  the name of the event was the Asian Challenge Cup.

Initially teams from Hong Kong and mainland China participated in the Lunar New Year Cup. Since 1950, however, HKFA has invited at least one overseas team to enter the competition. National teams were in the mix in the 1990s and early 2000s: Russia, Nigeria, Mexico, Uruguay and Brazil all won the Carlsberg Cup between 1993 and 2005. Since rebranding to the Lunar New Year AET Cup, the tournament has featured exclusively club football.

In 2014 Hong Kong Stadium hosted CD Cuenca of Ecuador’s Serie A, Krylia Sovetov of the Russian Premier League, FC Tokyo of J. League D1 and SC Olhanense of Portugal’s Primeira Liga. CONMEBOL, the South American Football Confederation, granted part of Cuenca’s squad permission to play in the tournament while the remainder stayed back to compete in Serie A. So 10 Cuenca players and their head coach joined forces with Citizen Football Club of the Hong Kong First Division, and together "Citizen Cuenca United" captured the Lunar New Year  Cup via a 2-0 win over Olhanense in the final.

New York Cosmos vs. South China Football Team

The 2015 edition of the Lunar New Year Cup features just two clubs: the Cosmos and South China Football Team  of the Hong Kong Premier League, Hong Kong’s first division. New York and South China will face off on the Chinese side’s home turf; Hong Kong Stadium has housed South China home fixtures since 2008 and holds up to 40,000 spectators.

South China Athletic Association was founded in 1910. The club is in the midst of its 94th season in the Hong Kong First Division and remains the most successful team in league history, boasting 41  league titles. The most recent championship for the side nicknamed "Shaolin Temple" came in the 2012-13  season, when South China compiled a record of 11-3-4  (W-D-L) and posted an impressive +25  goal differential.

The team sits in third on the 2014-15 league table, trailing Eastern Sports Club and tied with Sun Pegasus FC in point total but narrowly edged in goal differential. Captain Chan Wai Ho  anchors the backline as a central defender. The 32-year-old has represented Hong Kong on the international level since 2000 and split most of his career between South China and Hong Kong Rangers.

On the attacking end South China features the all-time leading scorer of Hong Kong’s national team: Chan Siu Ki. The 29-year-old, 6-foot-2 striker has scored 34 international goals and 72 for South China.

Mario Gómez is head coach of South China. He played for eight years as a defender in Argentina and managed aforementioned Ecuadorian side Cuenca before arriving in Hong Kong.