Cambodia Coach: Winning against Vietnam is like winning the Asian championship

"If we win against the Vietnamese team, we will be like the Asian champions," Kampuchea Thmey newspaper quoted coach Koji Gyotoku of the Cambodian team. The friendly match between the Vietnamese and Cambodian teams will take place tomorrow night (March 19) at Binh Duong Stadium. This is the first match between the two teams after the AFF Cup 2024.

The Vietnamese team has never lost to Cambodia in the past. The only victory of a Cambodian football representative against Vietnam was at the youth level (the U18 Southeast Asian tournament held in 2019).

Coach Koji Gyotoku of the Cambodian national team

In recent years, the Cambodian team has made a lot of progress. In addition, this team has significantly increased its strength thanks to naturalized players. At the AFF Cup 2024, Cambodia did not pass the group stage but they caused many difficulties for strong opponents (tied with Malaysia, lost closely to Singapore and Thailand).

"The Cambodian team is not yet capable of ensuring a 100% victory, but we will try our best in this match," Mr. Gyotoku added. The Japanese coach has just been appointed as the head coach of the Cambodian team with a one-year contract. Before that, he only worked as an interim coach at the AFF Cup 2024.

In this training session, the Cambodian team still called up all the naturalized players who played well at the AFF Cup, namely Takaki Ose, Yudai Ogawa, Nicolas Taylor, Andres Nieto Rondon and Abdel Koulibaly. However, the team from the pagoda country did not have much time to practice in preparation for the match with the Vietnamese team because some clubs "released" their players late.

"Our team's preparation was not good because the players had just gone through a series of club matches and were not in good condition. Our squad this time was also not complete," said coach Koji Gyotoku.

Xiao Ming

Source: https://vtcnews.vn/hlv-campuchia-thang-tuyen-viet-nam-nhu-vo-dich-chau-a-ar932331.html