PALEMBANG (30 April 2018) – Despite having a brand new set of players, Thailand are in confident mood while Indonesia will be banking on home support when the AFF Under-16 Girls’ Championship opens tomorrow.
Both Indonesia and Thailand are in Group B alongside Cambodia and Laos and tomorrow, they will have a chance to look at the level of preparation of teams from Group A when they take to the field.
“We cannot use any players from last year as they are over-aged. So we start fresh with these set of players in training for the past month,” said Thailand head coach Naruephon Kaenson.
“We are still not at the level that we should be but we will make improvements.”
For Indonesia, the team has not set any target although they will be hoping that the Palembang folks will get behind the team.
“We have prepared this squad for five months. We want to prepare a strong teams and hope that we have done enough,” said Indonesian team manager Papat Junisal.
“It is the first event of the AFF this year and playing at home, it is important that we play well.”
ADDITIONAL QUOTES
“We selected these players from the province and they have been training for the past weeks in the academy. I did not have a long time to prepare them as in April, we had the Cambodian New year, so it did not give us the chance to train these players.” – Cambodian head coach Meas Sam Oeurn
“Five weeks is not a long time considering that in Laos, we do not have a big pool of players. We know what we are up against here in Palembang. They are several big teams but for us, we will have to contend with Thailand and everyone knows their quality.” – Laos head coach Phonethip Sengmany
“We had one month of training with these players and while friendship is important, it is also imperative that we do well here. We are looking at improving the players’ competitive spirit and also prepare them for the AFC qualifiers in September.” – Vietnam head coach Nguyen Mai Lan
“We are taking it just one game at a time as we have to be realistic given the amount of time we have had with these players. A short training session has not allowed us to gauge the players’ quality but I hope that they will improve.” – Myanmar head coach San San Thein
“It is an on-going process where we are looking at a long term process of developing these players. We have a small pool of players and three weeks of training is not enough. It is an important first game, so we have to look at making a good start.” – Singapore head coach Yeong Shean Shyan
“This is the first time that I am taking a women’s team. I have set no target for the players as the short session of just two weeks could not allow me the chance to gauge the quality of the players. I just hope that they play to tactics.” – Malaysian head coach Justin Ganai
“We are very excited for this event. We made the final last year and we hope that we can do it again this time round. We have prepared a credible squad and I believe that we can show the same kind of commitment as we had done in 2017.” – Philippines head coach Marielle Benitez
AFF UNDER-16 GIRLS’ CHAMPIONSHIP
FIXTURES
1 May 2018 (Kick off at 1600hrs)
Vietnam vs Myanmar (Bumi Sriwijaya)
Singapore vs Malaysia (Athletic Jaka Baring 1)
