MYANMAR, PHILIPPINES HOPE TO UNVEIL BETTER DISPLAYS

Myanmar need to win by a five-goal margin to feel safe about a semi-final berth from the group as Thailand fight it out with Malaysia in the other group tie to be played simultaneously at the Supachalasai Stadium.

The latter two are contenders for semi-final berths, thus taking the semis race in Group A down to the wire.

Myanmar can win by a handsome margin if they play the way they did against Thailand in their opening match that ended in a stirring 1-1 draw.

However, after that bright start Myanmar stuttered to a scoreless draw against Malaysia in their next match.

Philippines were beaten 0-4 by Malaysia in the opening match and though they suffered defeat by the same score to Thailand in their second match, their performance against the Thais in the second half was their best display thus far in the competition.

With that second half display obviously in mind, Myanmar head coach U Sann Win was understandably circumspect about his team’s chances.

“We expect a difficult match but we hope to win,” said Sann Win.

“It does not matter if we win by one nil or two nil as long as we win,” he added.

It was odd Sann Win took that position since a larger margin of victory would ensure their appearance in the semi-finals which is clearly the Myanmar’s team goal.

But true to his word stated earlier in the competition, Sann Win said his young team needed another year at least to reach its full potential.

“This team is young and needs another year of experience to become stronger,” he said.

Marlon Maro, the Philippines assistant coach, said his team would like to deploy the second half performance they unveiled against Thailand when they restricted the vaunted Thais to only one goal.

“We will to be aggressive in defence and also attack,” he asserted.

“We will employ a similar game plan as the one against Thailand. We had a torrid time against the Thais in the first half but we adjusted the plan in the second half and the boys played their best game so far.”

Both teams have players with injury problems that are not too troubling.

For Myanmar, attacking midfielder Aung Myint Aye had a cut to his nose and striker Si Thu Win had a gash on his forehead.

But coach Sann Win said he will stick to the same team which meant that the injured would recover in time for the match.

Filipino striker James Younghusband a nursing a sore hamstring that coach Marlon Maro felt was not serious enough to keep the Chelsea Reserves’ discard out of the match.

Other quotes:
MYANMAR COACH U SANN WIN

I think our team will win tomorrow but it will not be easy. Philippines lost to Myanmar and Thailand by 4-0 but they are not an easy team to beat. It will be a very difficult match.

I will be happy if our team can win 1-0 or 2-0. I want to win, that is the main thing.

Khin Maung Lwin broke his nose in the match against Malaysia and Si Thu Win also has a facial injury but both of them should be okay to play – they have told me they want to play.

We only beat the Philippines 1-0 in the 2004 Tiger Cup (16-year-old substitute San Day Thien scoring in the second minute of injury time). We expect them to be tough to beat again, they play a forceful game.

We are playing this game at the Army Stadium (in Bangkok) and the pitch there is good,

PHILIPPINES ASSISTANT COACH MARLON MARO

We are at a stage in the competition where everyone needs to score goals – Myanmar needs to score more than Malaysia and Thailand did against us (four) to qualify. (under certain circumstances).

We will play our best – we are still looking for a win here. Hopefully we can play the same way as we did in the second half against Thailand. We want to be solid in defence but we will also attack a bit more than we have done in the other games.