SINGAPORE -- Just as they were hoping for, Singapore were able to belatedly open their 2024 ASEAN Championship campaign with a victory.
After sitting out the opening round of games with a bye, the Lions took to the field for the first time at the tournament at their National Stadium on Wednesday and claimed a 2-1 victory over Cambodia.
Nonetheless, what should have been an air of positivity -- especially after they took a 2-0 inside 16 minutes -- was overridden by a sense of disappointment given the Lions failed to build on their strong start and instead produced a meek display.
In fact, considering both their goals came from shocking mistakes by opposition goalkeeper Vireak Dara -- who twice gave away possession inside his own area straight to gift Faris Ramli and Shawal Anuar goals -- the result might even have been a far different story.
It was Cambodia who would actually finish the game with greater possession (53.5%) and efforts on target (seven to Singapore's three) and, understandably, Singapore coach Tsutomu Ogura was quick to demand improvement after the final whistle.
"Today, I'm not satisfied," he said in his postmatch news conference. "With the three points, that's okay - and with the way the players showed good fight and running.
"But on the football side [of things] we need to improve. And this is my responsibility.
"In training, we do a lot of build-up and playing the ball. I don't know why, when we are leading, we played so many long balls."
Singapore's win saw them move level with Thailand at the top of Group A, but the latter already have a significant goal-difference advantage after putting ten goals past Timor-Leste in their opener.
While Ogura believes his players deserve praise for the way they forced Dara into mistakes, he believes they should have then showed a similar mentality to the Thais.
"To me, these weren't mistakes [by the opposition] -- if we are not chasing, they would not have been mistakes," he added.
"This is our philosophy to chase from the front. If nobody applied the pressure, this [the goals] would not have happened.
"I told the players we have to learn from Thailand. If we're leading 2-0, we cannot stop. Thailand lead by three, four, five and six goals, they still go forward. This is winning mentality."
Having failed to build on their early lead, Singapore then found themselves under severe pressure in the second half once Cambodia had pulled one back through Sieng Chanthea.
It led to some nervy moments at the end that required some alert goalkeeping from Izwan Mahbud, while better finishing might even have seen Cambodia snatch a draw at the death.
Echoing Ogura's sentiments, Faris called on the team to take responsibility, stating: "We can do better with the overall performance.
"If we want to win the tournament, we'll have to improve. The fans are behind us, so there's no two ways about it."