Having his hand bandaged for… blocking Xuan Son, the Singaporean defender still trains with the Japanese star in Viet Tri

Singapore will have the strongest squad

Japanese-born midfielder Kyoga Nakamura of the Singapore team returns after suspension. The lion island nation’s team will theoretically be stronger than themselves in the first leg of this year’s AFF Cup semi-final. On the evening of December 28, this midfielder and his teammates had a practice session to get acquainted with Viet Tri Stadium.

In the first leg of the AFF Cup 2024 semi-finals at Jalan Besar in Singapore on December 26, the Lion Island team did not have the services of Japanese-born midfielder Kyoga Nakamura. This player received 2 yellow cards in the group stage and was “suspended” in the above match.

In the semi-final second leg tomorrow (December 29), at Viet Tri Stadium (Phu Tho), Kyoga Nakamura will return. This is a very important player for the Singapore team. This player plays the role of regulating the gameplay and organizing attacks for the army of coach Tsutomu Ogura (Japanese).

In the semi-final first leg, the Singapore team did not have good group coordination, their short-range passes and wall jumps were not very smooth. The reason is that they lack a player with the best technique and tactical thinking on the Kyoga Nakamura team.

In tomorrow’s semi-final second leg, the details mentioned above may change. At that time, the Lion Island football team had the ability to combine group coordination, short balls, with long balls, downfield situations and high balls.

If Singapore executes a series of attacks in the above ways, their routes to the ball will be more diverse. These are the points that the Vietnamese team needs to watch out for, especially in the early stages of the match. This is the time when Singapore often takes advantage of the opponent’s distraction, increasing their attack power in search of a goal. They did this in the first leg at Jalan Besar against the Vietnamese team. At that time, they were not successful, because as mentioned, Singapore’s playing style in the match 2 days ago was not diverse.

In the second leg, it is likely that they will still pre-emptively attack coach Kim Sang-sik’s team, because Singapore desperately needs an early goal to create momentum to turn the tide against the Vietnamese team.

Another possible reason why the Singapora team will play quickly in the first minutes, preemptively attacking the Vietnamese team, was commented by former Vice President (PCT) of VFF Duong Vu Lam: “The Singapore team has a group of players. Skilled, sharp players on the attack line include striker Shawal Anuar, midfielders Faris Ramli and Kyoga Nakamura. The problem with these players is that they are quite old, so the Singapore team coach only chooses when to use the above players during a certain period of each match. At the time the Singapore team coach used these players, the lion island team often played strong attacks, in order to solve the problem of finding goals.”

The last time the trio of Shawal Anuar, Faris Ramli and Kyoga Nakamura appeared on the field at the same time, in the early stages of a match, was the match against Thailand in the group stage. At that time, Singapore was 2 goals ahead of Thailand, thanks to goals from Sahwal Anuar in the 9th minute and Faris Ramli in the 34th minute. If the aforementioned trio appeared in Singapore’s starting lineup, in the semi-finals In the return leg tomorrow, coach Kim Sang-sik’s team needs to be careful to avoid conceding too early.