The Cambodian national team is facing the risk of early stopping in the group stage of the ASEAN Cup 2026 after losing to Singapore 1-2 in the opening match and losing 1-5 to Indonesia in the second match of Group A.
With still having to face defending champion Vietnam and Timor-Leste, the opportunity to win a ticket to the next round for coach Koji Gyotoku's team becomes very slim. If they do not improve their performance in the remaining matches, Cambodia is likely not to be able to repeat the positive results like the ASEAN Cup 2022 (6 points) or 2024 (4 points).
After the defeat to Indonesia, many Cambodian fans expressed disappointment on football forums and social networking sites of the Cambodian Football Federation. Notably, many opinions questioned the effectiveness of the policy of using naturalized players.
Many comments said that fans once expected the naturalized players to create a new face for the team, but the performance against Indonesia showed a significant gap in professional quality compared to the opponent.
In the match against Singapore, Cambodia used 5 naturalized players including Ogawa and Hikaru (Japanese origin), Coulibaly (Ivory Coast origin), Mirzaev (Uzbek origin) and Bento (Brazilian origin). According to Sofascore statistics, Hikaru and Mirzaev are the two players rated above 7 points, while Coulibaly and Bento did not leave much of an impression.
In the confrontation with Indonesia, coach Koji Gyotoku did not use Coulibaly and Bento. The remaining three players including Ogawa, Hikaru and Mirzaev all started.
Among these, Ogawa was scored 6.8 points by Sofascore, being the player with the highest score on the Cambodian side. Conversely, Hikaru and Mirzaev both received above 6 points, in which Mirzaev was substituted right after the first half when his team conceded three goals.
Fans believe that Cambodian football needs to invest in development according to a long-term roadmap instead of expecting too much from naturalized players.
The continuous receipt of unfavorable results puts Cambodia at risk of having poorer performance than the last two ASEAN Cups, despite the expectations placed on the force that has been supplemented with many naturalized players before the tournament.
