ASEAN Cup Diary: Day 3
ASEAN Cup returned after a short break and it was expected to bring plenty of excitement when Group A returns.
It was a contrasting story for day 1 and 2 of the ASEAN Cup, with Group A providing plenty of excitement and drama and Group B was pretty much as expected. While most of the title contenders have got points on the board and have sent out their own statement to the rest of the region, the competition will be in full swing starting from day 3 and 4 as Singapore kicked off their campaign with a match against potential dark horse Cambodia and Malaysia returned to host Timor-Leste in a clash that they were expected to win. Let’s not waste any time, shall we?
Singapore 2-1 Cambodia
Singapore brought a very experienced team to this year’s tournament with some familiar names still appeared in the starting lineup like Shahdan Sulaiman, Hariss Harun, or Faris Ramli. But without some key players like the Fandi brothers, questions will be made as to whether Singapore could perform at their best. Meanwhile, it seemed as if Cambodia did not make any changes to their starting lineup, with players who have impressed against Malaysia like Kim Sokyuth or Abdel Coulibaly remained.
It was only very early into the match but it was interesting to see Indonesia used a 3-2-5 build-up shape to counter Cambodia’s 4-4-2 defensive shape. With one full-back stayed deep and #6 Shah Shahiran formed a double pivot with #8 Sulaiman, Singapore were able to have five attackers to go up against Cambodia’s back four and made the task of bypassing the away side’s defensive block slightly easier. There was also the use of long passes to encourage attackers to make runs in behind Cambodia’s high defensive line, but it did not work…so far.
The host also tried to press Cambodia high up the pitch and it worked almost instantly. While being chased down by Shawal Anuar, Cambodia’s keeper Vireak Dara made his first individual error of the tournament by miskicked the ball and allowed Ramli to pick up the loose ball and scored into an empty net. And just five minutes later, Dara made another mistake by passing the ball too weak and allowed Shawal to intercept the pass and score the second goal of the match. A forgetful day for the Cambodian keeper so far.
It was individual mistakes that were killing Cambodia right now. They had more control of the ball compared to Singapore (60% compared to Singapore’s 40% after 25 minutes) and they have created some chances, but misplaced passes at the back, fouls, and Dara’s direct mistakes that allowed Singapore to be in good goal-scoring positions. They have also tried to press, but with the way that they set up, the host just easily found a way to play through Cambodia’s pressing lines with relative ease.
It amazed me how good some of Singapore’s sequences to play through Cambodia’s pressing lines were. Guided by the midfield duo of Sulaiman and Shahiran, they focused on doing the basics like using the up-back-through passing sequence to guide the ball wide, which gave them the opportunity to play a long pass to either Kyoga Nakamura or Glenn Kweh to encourage them to make runs in behind.
Cambodia came roaring back into the second half and started to put more pressure on Singapore, which led to them getting a goal back from Sieng Chanthea. The fact that the host did not control a lot of the ball were starting to punish them because it gave Cambodia more chance to improve their attacks overtime. This already started to happen late into the first half as the away side created more and more chances, but they lacked the composure to actually turn most of their chances into meaningful ones. There were a few, but those were easily dealt with by Izwan Mahbud.
While I praised Singapore’s build-up tactics, they seemed to struggle to get the ball into the final third now as Cambodia defenders have started to be a bit more aggressive on Singapore wingers, which forced them to lose the ball even on the halfway line. On the other hand, Cambodia’s wing attacks seemed to be quite effective now, especially on the left-hand side. They got to the byline on quite a few occasions and got the ball to dangerous positions, which they only needed to be more clinical in converting them into goals.
But as time went on, Indonesia started to drop back and defend closer to their own goal, which made it harder for Cambodia to find a breakthrough. Cambodia’s preference to attack down the wings seemed to not do much for them as crosses became a bit aimless and the host’s defenders were able to deal with them quite easily. Long shots were the same story as the last match against Malaysia since they did not deal a lot of damage towards Mahbud’s goal. And the result remained at 2-1 even with Cambodia’s last-ditch efforts.
Summary
A great tactical battle between Singapore and Cambodia as both teams played decent football and had a few good moments here and there. For Singapore it was their build-up, which showed a good understanding of the basics and a clear understanding by the players to know where they need to be. But progressing through the midfield seemed to let them down since their attackers had a bit of troubles getting past Cambodia defenders, and they had to rely on individual mistakes in order to score.
Meanwhile, I still maintain my point that Cambodia looked good. Even though there was a reliance on wing attacks, they still played good football whenever they had the chance. They needed a bit more composure and precision with their shots in order to convert more shots into goals. But overall, the away side should feel a bit unlucky that they did not come away with at least a point from this match.
Malaysia 3-2 Timor-Leste
As mentioned earlier, this should have been an easy match in theory for Malaysia since Timor-Leste just came off a record 10-0 lost to Thailand on the opening day. While Pau Martí’s side looked a bit struggling against Cambodia, they still had the quality to rescue a point, and Timor-Leste was an opponent where they could show their strengths and played the way that Pau Martí wanted them to play. But, as the scoreline suggested, it seemed like they…did not have as easy of a time as I expected them to have.
Similar to Singapore, Malaysia also went out with a 3-2-5 build-up shape with the intention of controlling possession. Given that Timor-Leste was happy to just sit back in a mid/low 5-4-1 block, they were able to achieve just that. They had right-back (#2) Declan Lambert stayed deep to create a back-three with the centre-backs, while central midfielders (#21) Muhammad Norhisham and (#16) Ezequiel Agüero formed the double pivot that sat just behind the lone striker. Lambert also played as an inverted full-back to allow right winger (#11) Najmuddin Akmal to stay wider and take on Timor-Leste’s left-back.
But the contrast between Malaysia and Singapore was their opposition’s defensive block. Cambodia’s 4-4-2 allowed Singapore to have numerical superiority at the back, and combined with player movements, they were able to extend the gap between Cambodia’s line of defenders and midfielders for passes to be played through. Meanwhile, Timor-Leste’s 5-4-1 block meant that they were able to go man-to-man with Malaysia’s build-up shape, even when they tried to go wide or into the half-spaces. Lucky for the home side that Timor-Leste did not look to jump whenever the ball went to the wide centre-backs and Malaysia was able to progress the ball into the final third for most of the time.
There was also a reliance on long passes in behind to encourage the lone striker (#9) Darren Lok and the wingers to make runs in behind. I could see this working, but most of their passes were over aimed and the attackers were not able to chase them down. There needed to be better precision with the long passes, or better-timed runs from the attackers. It was also a bit annoying to see the match being disrupted too many times by injuries to both sides. But when you have challenges being thrown all over the pitch, injuries became unavoidable.
And…Malaysia’s long passes have worked with the introduction of #22 Fergus Tierney. A channel run from him and utilised Timor-Leste defenders’ complacency, he got in behind and received Norhisham’s long pass, from which he assisted (#22) Syafiq Ahmad through a cross. But their attacking effort got undone just inside the stoppage time of the first half, where Timor-Leste scored two goals from two counter-attacks that Malaysia did not have enough numbers at the back to defend. A hint of complacency perhaps?
Into the second half and Malaysia tried to pour forward to attack and attempt to break Timor-Leste’s defensive block down. But 15 minutes in and they still have not found a solution as the away side sat deeper and closer to their own goal. This prevented Malaysia from getting closer to the byline and make cutbacks into the box, but they were starting to wear Timor-Leste players out more and more.
It seemed as if passes over the top were Timor-Leste’s main weakness and it showed the difference in quality between the two sides. Should the defenders from the away side been more aware of players like Tierney, (#17) Paulo Josué, or (#13) Fazrul Amir, they could have prevented the three goals and wasted their efforts inside of the first half stoppage time. It is always easier said than done, though.
Summary
Quality came through in the end as Malaysia found a breakthrough through lofted passes in behind Timor-Leste’s defensive line to score three goals. It was not a convincing win, however, because they looked struggling to play through the away side’s defensive block for most of the match. Credits to Timor-Leste though as they fought back during the first half stoppage time to take the lead and managed to hold on to that lead up until the 70th minute. You could see the dejection on their faces once Josué scored his second goal of the night to help Malaysia regained the lead, which was understandable considering how hard they worked through the whole night.
Once again, Group A delivered us with plenty of goals and dramas, and while the favourites in Singapore and Malaysia continued to come out on top, they also had to face resistance and challenges from the underdogs in Cambodia and Timor-Leste. I can only hope that Group B will match this level of excitement, but I am not holding my hopes high. Still, I am excited to see how the Philippines will play as they open their campaign, and how can Indonesia improve on their performance against Myanmar. Until then, see you!