Singapore will be the opponent of the Vietnamese team in the 2 semi-finals of the ASEAN Cup 2024. The team from the Lion Island entered the semi-finals with the 2nd place in Group A (won Cambodia 2-1, Timor Leste 3-0, lost to Thailand 2-4 and tied Malaysia 0-0). Meanwhile, the Vietnamese team is playing brilliantly with an unbeaten run in the group stage (3 wins, 1 draw), winning the top spot in Group B.
In the final match of the group stage, the Vietnamese team impressed with a 5-0 victory over Myanmar. In this match, striker Nguyen Xuan Son also had an impressive debut with 2 goals and 2 assists. Son's excellent performance forced coach Tsutomu Ogura of the Singapore team to prepare a countermeasure.
"The Vietnamese team is thriving with Nguyen Xuan Son. Because he used to play in Japan, I watched Xuan Son a few matches and found him to be a very good player. But football is a team sport, not dependent on one player. We are ready to face him and have a plan to deal with this striker," coach Tsutomu Ogura said at a press conference on the afternoon of December 25.
The Singapore team will host the Vietnam team at the Jalan Besar artificial field. Despite the advantage of playing on this field, coach Tsutomu Ogura still regrets that the Singapore team will not be playing at the national stadium.
"It's true that my players have a lot of experience playing on artificial turf. But I feel sad that this match cannot be played at the national stadium which has a much larger capacity, meaning more fans can come to the stadium. I really want more fans to watch tomorrow's match, because that is a big advantage for us. The pitch is not much different," said Mr. Tsutomu Ogura.
"I always say football is not just about one position. Each opponent requires you to play differently, requires us to prepare differently. Tomorrow, Singapore will face another strong opponent and you will have to wait and see how we prepare for this match," coach Tsutomu Ogura added.
The first leg of the ASEAN Cup 2024 semi-final between Singapore and Vietnam will take place at 8:00 p.m. tomorrow (December 26).
