The Kingdom expects

Coach Lee Tae-Hoon (blue cap) will need to plot the downfall of Laos in tonight's Suzuki Cup opener

If you are a football fan in Cambodia then you should be glued to your television, computer or radio from 6.30pm onwards tonight, desperately trying to watch or listen to the first of the Suzuki Cup qualifying matches that the Cambodian national team will play in Vientiane in Laos this week. They meet their Lao hosts in what will be their hardest game to win. Laos are at home, they will be backed by large numbers of supporters - as they were in the SEA Games last year - and they are no slouches. We beat them in the BIDC Cup before the SEA Games but that was a young Laos team and we had home advantage, and their full national team will be much harder to beat. Despite the Cambodian coach Lee Tae-Hoon saying in the local press today that, "no problem, I think the boys will play well," he could be in for a rude awakening. He admitted; "we still have to sort out our problems areas, like the backline, but overall the side appears in good shape and spirits." A day before the first match and he's having problems with his backline after spending more than a month away in a training camp in Vietnam, and playing 10 warm-up games in preparation for tonight's game, doesn't fill me with bags of confidence. Individually we have very some talented performers in the likes of Kuoch Sokumpheak, Sun Sopanha, Tieng Tiny and Keo Sokngorn, and its the job of the coach to gel them together into a unit that will fight tooth and nail for every inch of ground and be able to apply that killer touch when presented with the opportunity. I didn't see that when I saw the team in their last warm-up game, so I'm hoping they were saving themselves for the competition proper. I think the starting line-up will be as follows; Mic, Raksmey, Narith, Borin, Tiny; Sothearath, Sopanha, Sokngorn, Laboravy; Sokumpheak, Borey. Keep your eyes and ears peeled for the game tonight and I'll update this blog as soon as I have any details.