The SEA Games football competition ended for
Cambodia U-23s tonight with a 0-0 draw with Thailand. Normally that would be a cause for celebration, as traditionally we always lose to our neighbours. And the players deserve credit for holding the Thais at bay for ninety minutes. But we have to look beyond the bare bones of the scoreline. The Thais rested players for this game as they were already through. Sou Yaty, captaining Cambodia once again, was the difference between the two teams and pulled off half a dozen excellent saves to keep his team in the match, five of them in the second half. Cambodia had three chances in the game. Phourng Soksana had two of them, both snuffed out by the opposing keeper and Chhin Chhoeun fired the other one across the face of the goal. To be frank, Cambodia never looked likely to score, they simply don't possess a finisher in the whole squad. Chan Vathanaka got a rare start in this game but was more focused on kicking the opposition and conceding dangerous free-kicks, which is something the whole team was prone to do, than being the offensive threat he is in the C-League. His effectiveness was blunted. The back-four is a serious problem area. They kept the opposition out tonight, but more by luck than judgement. Ros Samoeun cannot defend and why he was converted into a full-back is beyond me. Another weird and wonderful decision from head coach Lee Tae-Hoon. The single point that Cambodia will take back from the SEA Games, after three successive defeats to Myanmar, Indonesia and Timor Leste, may be seen by some as a positive, but it's not. It's a thin layer of gloss over what has been another unsuccessful adventure overseas under Lee's tutelage. We have now endured such misery all too often over the past couple of years of Lee's control and it's time to call a halt. In fact, that time is way overdue. The Phnom Penh Post hinted at other less attractive misadventures on their sports pages today and anyone with an ounce of gray matter will take one look at Lee's record and realise it's time to call it a day. We need a stronger, driven, football expert to shake up Cambodian football from top to bottom, effectively starting again from scratch, or else we will continue to limp from one disaster to the next, showing no signs of progression whatsoever, as our national team slips further behind every other country in the region. This is the bleak outlook we face unless we take action now to stop the rot.
I was criticised by one of Lee's assistants this evening on facebook, less than an hour after the game, who claimed I didn't support the Cambodia team, but he is so far from the truth. I am the nation's biggest fan (as much as a foreigner can be) but I will not sit idly by and keep quiet, while I see that so much needs to be changed before we will improve. Whether that's the national team and its coach, the domestic C-League and its organisation, cup competitions, match officials, grassroots development and so on. Football is my passion, it always has been and always will be and if I see something that I believe is wrong or needs changing in my opinion, then that is fair game.
