Cambodia U-22 are determined to win their first group stage match against the Philippines on Tuesday at Selayang Stadium.
That is the ultimate goal of Cambodia head coach Leonardo Vitorino. He insisted that winning the opening game was important before moving on to other battles.
“We have to take step by step because we have to respect every opponent, not because we are afraid of Vietnam and Thailand, but we need to respect the Philippines, too.”
“The Philippines are not the same team when they played in Cambodia before, so before we think of other teams, we have to go through them first,” the Brazilian coach said to Keila Daily.
As reported by aseanfootball.org, the Young Koupreys kick off their SEA Games campaign with the heavyweight motivation as the Prime Minister Hun Sen has promised S1,000 each for a win apart from the S10,000 if they strike gold. The silver medal is worth $7,500 and the bronze $4,000.
On the other hand, the Angkor Beer Company will sponsor $5,000 if they reach semi-finals. Winning the gold is worth $8,000, silver ($5,000) and bronze ($3,000).