PETALING JAYA (31 Aug 2018) – While Timor Leste will be banking on their youth for the qualifying round of the AFF Suzuki Cup 2018, Brunei DS are aiming for the full points when the two sides clash.
The first leg of the qualifying round of the AFF Suzuki Cup 2018 will be held at the KLFA Stadium tomorrow night with the return tie to be played a week later in Bandar Seri Begawan.
At the pre-match Press Conference this afternoon at Wisma FAM in Petaling Jaya, Norio Tsukitate the head coach of Timor Leste felt that the youth will be the key to his team’s campaign.
“A handful of our players played at the Asian Games in 2018 in Jakarta and they have earned a lot of valuable experiences,” said Norio.
“Their fitness will also be at a good level which means that they will be invaluable to our team’s strength as they will provide the power alongside the experienced players we have in the team.
“The team has been together for the last four months with the intense preparation being in the last month. So I would say that we are quite well prepared to win our place in the final rounds of the AFF Suzuki Cup.
In the meantime, Brunei DS will be relying on the tried and tested to carry them through as they aspire to make the finals rounds of the meet.
“The team is basically the same team from the last few years where this time, we trained for about two months together,” said Brunei DS head coach Kwon Oh Son, who has been the on and off tactician for the Sultanate side for the last several years.
“The important factor here is cohesion and I believe that we have the strength to win here in Kuala Lumpur so as to be prepared for the second leg.
“We have been training very hard for the past month and we are excited to play this game. We played some local friendlies but no internationals , so we hope that it will be enough.”
Following a change in format for the 2018 edition, only two teams as against four in the 2016 edition will play in the qualifiers.
The winner of the two-legged qualifiers will earn a spot to the final rounds of the AFF Suzuki Cup 2018 where they will be place in Group B against Thailand, Indonesia, Philippines and Singapore.
Group A Vietnam, Malaysia, Myanmar, Cambodia and Laos.
