Gavin Lee preaches calm ahead of Singapore’s crunch ASEAN football championship game with Indonesia

SINGAPORE: In what is the Lions' highest-stakes encounter at the ASEAN Championships so far this year, head coach Gavin Lee’s message remains the same - that his team remains composed and plays their own game.

Speaking at a pre-match press conference on Thursday (Aug 6) ahead of Singapore’s clash with Indonesia, Lee told reporters that the team’s approach will be “calm and measured”.

“Tomorrow will be a difficult game as we expect. But we're playing at home in front of a big crowd, full house,” said Lee.

“So I think internally we're just all very excited. We just got to manage that with a little bit of calm so that we go out there and play our football.”

Unbeaten in their first three group games, Singapore currently sit second in Group A with seven points, behind Vietnam on goal difference. Indonesia are third with six points.

The Lions started their campaign with victories over Cambodia (2-1) and Timor-Leste (2-0) before a 0-0 away draw to Vietnam.

The equation for the Lions going into their last group game on Friday is simple. Avoid defeat against Indonesia, and they will move on to the tournament semi-finals. Lose, and their opponents will progress.

Lee stressed that his side will not allow the "situation or outcome" to affect their game.

"We came into the competition saying that we wanted to allow our performance to determine our destination and that shouldn't change tomorrow night."

However, he added that if there is a situation late in Friday's game where certain decisions need to be taken, "we will be clever enough to make them".

WOUNDED BUT NOT OUT

The Lions will be up against an Indonesia side smarting from their 0-3 defeat at the hands of defending champions Vietnam.

Speaking on Friday, head coach John Herdman described his team as a "wounded and hungry" one.

"We know what we're here for. There's no messing around," said Herdman, when asked what it would mean to be the first Indonesian side to win the tournament.

"And if we don't make it, it's going to be very painful for us because that opportunity slips through your fingers and never comes back. That's why I'm saying, this is a wounded and hungry Indonesian team that ain't gonna mess around tomorrow."

He described Singapore as a "well organised" team that is hard to beat.

"They won't give up many goals and there's a collective mentality there. We know what we're coming into, this is a good opponent, but we know who we are as well," said Herdman, who was Canada's head coach at the 2022 World Cup.

"We're a strong team, we have some very experienced players. We have some young players that are hungry and footballers live for these moments ... This is going to be a great test for us, and will stand us in great stead if and when we move through the tournament."

Indonesia made it to the fourth round of Asian qualifiers for the World Cup, the deepest run of any Southeast Asian team. They also have qualified for next year's Asian Cup, along with Thailand, Vietnam and Singapore.

While their squad for this tournament is missing a slew of key players, it still boasts the likes of Sandy Walsh, Jordi Amat and Thom Haye.

"We started the tournament with really high confidence, we got a knock a few days ago, which is part of life and which is part of football," added midfielder Marc Klok.

"The strongest way to show the identity of a team is to be able to bounce back when it's hard."