December 16, 2004

Tiger Cup Group A (Vietnam)

Singapore	3	0	Cambodia
Itimi Dickson 20’ Baihakki Khaizan 28’ Khariul Amri  54’

Vietnam	3	0	Laos
Le Cong Vinh 9’ Nguyen Minh Phuong 42’  Thach Bao Khanh 75’

Singapore reached the semi-finals of the Tiger Cup for the first time since their victorious 1998 campaign with a workman-like 3-0 win over Cambodia which sent them through to the last four as Group A runners-up to Indonesia.

The Lions after a nervous and disjointed start, went ahead through Itimi Dickson. The ball was swung in from the right by Indra Sahdan and with both goalkeeper Hong Visokra & Sun Sampratna failing to take command of the situation, the winger ghosted in at the left hand post where the ball fortuitously connected with the 21-year-old’s face.

Singapore then doubled the lead as Baihakki Khaizan’s header from Daniel Bennett’s cross squirmed under the arms of Viskora & over the line.

Visorka was substituted 37 minutes into the first half but a similar fate befell his replacement Ouc Mic in the second half.

One minute after coming on for the ineffectual Agu Casmir, Khairul Amiri made it 3-0. Shahril Ishak played a neat one-two with Indra on the edge of the box and whipped the ball across the area and into the path of the Singapore youngster. Mic appeared to have saved the shot but the ball squeezed under the Cambodian keeper’s body and rolled into the back of the net.

Khairul Amri could have doubled his tally lat in the game as he missed an open goal after Mic had charged out to block Dickson at the edge of the penalty area while the Cambodian custodian did well to save Muhammad Ridhuan’s shot following the winger’s lung-bursting run from his own half as Cambodia restricted Singapore to 3 goals.

In the other Group A game Vietnam closed their campaign with a similar 3-0 win over Laos but it was not good enough as they went out finishing behind Indonesia & Singapore.

Singapore team - Lionel Lewis (GK), S. Subramani, Baihakki Khaizan, Aide Iskandar (C), Daniel Bennett, Shahril Ishak, Hasrin Jailani, Goh Tat Chuan (Ishak Zainol, 63’), Itimi Dickson, Indra Sahdan (Ridhuan Muhamad, 75’) Agu Casmir (Khairul Amri, 52’)