The Vietnam national team faces the task of defeating Singapore and overcoming Indonesia.

... The game is just beginning. This is to emphasize that, throughout the last three decades, Vietnam's actual contests and genuine rivals in the Southeast Asian tournament have only come from a group of five: Singapore, Indonesia, Thailand, and Malaysia.

Since the painful 0-1 loss in the 1998 Tiger Cup final (the predecessor of the ASEAN Cup) at Hàng Đẫy Stadium, the Vietnam national team has never again lost to the Lion Island team in this competition, with a streak of 8 wins and 8 draws. Singapore in the late 1990s and early 2000s was a regional powerhouse, with half of its squad consisting of naturalized players.

Singapore's policy of openness and importing foreign talent began after its separation from Malaysia, i.e., from the early days of nation-building (the 1970s-1980s). This included the field of sports as well as football. So it was not unusual to see foreign stars in the Singapore national team. They have won four Southeast Asian championships (second only to Thailand's seven) since the tournament's inception in 1996, and for good reason.

However, Singapore's naturalization strategy has shown weaknesses and entered a decline, unable to recover over the past decade or so. Because, alongside using external talent, it is also necessary to develop internal resources to succeed. Internal resources here refer to youth training, the national competition system, and the professional S-League.

This is a lesson not only for Vietnam but for all countries in the region, whose footballing foundations are still considered modest in stature.

Returning to the developments in Group A of the 2026 ASEAN Cup, Singapore is currently leading after two wins against Cambodia and Timor-Leste. This order is likely to change after the match at Mỹ Đình, when Coach Kim Sang Sik's men return home and bring the game back to its proper trajectory—its rightful position. We are not overconfident, but both history and the present are on Vietnam's side. To put it bluntly, Singapore has no chance in this match. The only question is how we play and by how many goals we win.

Nearly 20 years ago at Mỹ Đình, the Singapore team under the "old fox" Radojko "Raddy" Avramovic caused us many difficulties in the first leg of the 2008 ASEAN Cup semifinal, but ultimately succumbed at the "lion's den" Kallang Roar (Singapore's former national stadium) due to Quang Hải's decisive strike in the second leg. In that tournament, we successively defeated Singapore, overcame Thailand, and won the regional title for the first time.

The current group stage situation is not the same in nature, but overcoming Singapore at home and securing a favorable result against Indonesia in the archipelago a few days later are tasks that must be accomplished. For the reigning champions Vietnam, losing in the final is already considered a failure, let alone any slip-up in the group stage.

The long break after the opening match might cause us to lose rhythm when approaching the game against Singapore. However, the devastating attacking power of Vietnam's forward line at this moment is almost unstoppable. We need to continue the winning streak, first for the goal of defending the Southeast Asian throne, and second to serve and build confidence among fans that Vietnamese football can fly higher and further with this generation.

Go forward, boys of Mr. Kim!