December 8, 2004

Both coaches had contrasting emotions in the press conference room after the 1-1 draw between Tiger Cup co-hosts Vietnam & Singapore.

For Raddy Avramovic, coach of Singapore, he had only praised for his battling players when he said it was a great game for both sides with Vietnam the more dominant side in passing the ball well.

Also he added while Singapore played badly in the first half once Singapore got the goal back, he believed correctly Singapore should have even won the game, but the draw was fair to him for both sides.

No sharing that feeling is Vietnamese coach Tavares as he felt instead of taking stock after taking the lead, Vietnam pushed forward for a second and, in the process, allowed Singapore back into the game.

He said after the goal Vietnam should have concentrated on counter-attacking but the players were not happy with just 1 goal so they carried on attacking in numbers which was not what he wanted them to do.

That is why he was disappointed as he believed they did not deserve not to win because they played better than Singapore for 80 out of the 90 minutes.

Worst for him was that he felt the Singapore goal was a result his players making the mistake of not clearing the ball & leaving Indra alone.

For Singapore national coach Avramovic though the Republic goal was a move Singapore have worked on in training & he was pleased it came off.

Also he reminded Tavares, Indra could have won the game as the Home United striker had 2 chances after his goal to win the game - The first which was cleared off the line while the second was headed straight into the keeper arms.