| Fadhil Yunus |
SINGAPORE and Cambodia national under-21 teams mutually agreed that all teams are presented with an equal chance of advancing from Group ‘B’ at the Hassanal Bolkiah Trophy for ASEAN Youth Football Tournament 2018 despite not drawing against the traditional elite.
“I think Group ‘B’ gives all three of us (Singapore, Cambodia and Lao PDR) an equal chance,” said Singapore national under-21 team manager in a press conference at the Lecture Theatre of the Hassanal Bolkiah National Stadium yesterday.
“I think this is a testament to ASEAN football, I don’t think you can see big score-lines. That is a thing of the past at senior and youth levels so there is no easy games anymore,” the team manager said.
“It is a very interesting group and everyone will hope to still be in Brunei next week (for the knock-out stage). We want to stay longer than one week.”
Meanwhile, Cambodia team manager Chhouk Piseth echoed his sentiments that it will be a competitive group.
“Maybe not many people think that Group ‘B’ is not a deadly group and that it is an easy group for each team to go through.
“In football, never say that it is easy. I think this group will be competitive and we will see.”
The manager indicated that they are not familiar with the Singapore squad but his team have already played Lao PDR at a similar age group level.
The Singapore manager also underscored the importance of the tournament as an opportunity to prove that they are worthy for selection to compete in the Asian Games this August.
“This tournament is quite critical to us because we want to convince the people back home (Singapore) that we should go to the Asian Games in Jakarta and Palembang,” he said.
“At this point in time, they are not convinced that we should go so we hope to do well and show them that we can compete with the best team in ASEAN,” he further added.
“I think one important factor that we all feel is that in this age group, we don’t have enough international exposure. So a tournament like this is very important not just to Singapore but also other member countries in ASEAN.”
Meanwhile, Lao PDR head coach Mehmet Kale also highlighted their reasons on the importance of their tournament.
“This is a very important tournament for us because it happens irregularly. It is a big private tournament with seven teams so performing here will mean a lot for the players.”
Singapore have never won SEA Games gold in football in their history and Eric said that twenty of the HBT players are eligible to play in the SEA Games next year.
“It is important for them to show our coaches that next year they must be in the team and they need to show not just in training but also in international matches.”
He also indicated that the tournament serves as an opportunity for players to provide competition for places with underperforming senior players and give the national senior coach in the senior squad a healthy selection headache.
“At the same time, we want our young players to show our senior team that they are waiting to go in the national team, for example the AFF Suzuki Cup this year.
“They can show them that if they don’t play well they will come and take their place. We have two players in this team that have an international ‘A’ cap so we want them to show and tell the coaches that they deserve to be in the national team,” he further added.
“The only way they can do that is in international competition to show that they can play at this level which is why this tournament is important.”
The Cambodia manager also revealed their plans in building a strong senior national squad.
“We try to form a strong senior national squad so for the youth team we try to find players with the most potential. It is not only for the SEA Games but also for the senior national team of the future,” he said.
“We will see how they perform in the tournament and we try to advise them,” he said.
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