Safuwan Baharudin winning an aerial duel against Cambodia, 11 December 2024
SINGAPORE, 12 DECEMBER 2024 – Despite the Singapore Men’s National Team opening their 2024 ASEAN Mitsubishi Electric Cup campaign with a 2-1 win over Cambodia in their first Group A game on 11 December, Head Coach Tsutomu Ogura was far from satisfied.
“I am not satisfied with my team’s performance today. We worked on our build-up play and style of football a lot in training, but we were not able to replicate it in the game as we were playing too many long balls after taking the lead,” he said.
It was a good fight from my players, but there are still plenty of areas for improvement on the footballing front. I am responsible for all the training and team meetings, so maybe this is my fault. All of us need to be much better overall.”
His Lions stuck to the game plan well in the first half as they got off to a bright start, pinning the Cambodians back in their half.
This early pressure would reap dividends in the 8th minute, as a lapse in concentration from Cambodian goalkeeper Dara Vireak allowed a backpass from Nicolas Taylor to slip past him. Singapore winger Faris Ramli was first to pounce on the loose ball, tapping it into the empty net to inspire an early roar through the 12,391-strong home crowd.
Just seven minutes later, the Lions were handed a stroke of luck as another unfortunate error from Vireak saw him misplace an attempted pass in his penalty area. This time, it was Shawal Anuar who reacted quickest to intercept the stray pass, smashing it into the roof of the net to double Singapore’s lead.
Shawal Anuar in action against Cambodia, 11 December 2024
Despite being behind at the break, Cambodia emerged from the break with renewed rigour and took the game to the Lions.
The visitors would soon find their breakthrough in the 58th minute when second-half substitute Sa Ty evaded a challenge from Lions fullback Chris Van Huizen and squared it to an unmarked Chanthea Sieng in the box.
The forward made no mistake and coolly placed the ball past Izwan Mahbud to drag the away side back into the game.
Seeing the pressure mount on his side, Coach Ogura drew a parallel between this situation and their opponents’ first game against Malaysia.
“I had spoken to the players about this as the same thing happened in Cambodia’s first game – where they fell behind against Malaysia but came back strongly in the second half. All the players were aware of this danger, but applying what we had discussed on the field is completely different,” said Ogura.
“If we had stuck to our style of football and were good in building up from the back, we would have kept them far away from our goal and created more chances. Unfortunately, we were unable to do that.”
Deep into stoppage time, Cambodia came agonisingly close to an equaliser as Sa Ty’s curling shot from outside the box left Lions goalkeeper Izwan scrambling to his far post.
Fortunately for Singapore, the ball narrowly sailed over the crossbar and the home side held on for all three points.
Faris Ramli answering questions at the post-match press conference, 11 December 2024.
Knowing that there is plenty of work to be done, the Lions headed to the Kallang Football Hub immediately after the match for their post-match recovery, with selected players even participating in a training session.
This desire to improve was echoed by Man-Of-The-Match Faris Ramli, who knew that his side should not be satisfied with just getting the win.
“The three points were important, but simply looking at one game is not enough – we need to focus on the entire tournament. Everything is at stake here so there is no two ways about it,” said the forward.
“We need to regroup quickly and focus on the next game. If we want to make it all the way, how we improve and recover is important.”
Singapore will depart for Vietnam the next day to face Timor-Leste in their next group A clash on Saturday (14 December). The match will be broadcasted live on meWATCH and Channel 5.
Lions at the training session held after the Cambodia match, 11 December 2024.
FOOTBALL ASSOCIATION OF SINGAPORE
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