Anthony Hudson speaks candidly after Thailand national team defeats Singapore in ASEAN Cup 2026 semi-final.
Anthony Hudson, head coach of the Thailand national football team, expressed pride in all his players after their 3-1 away victory over Singapore in the first leg of the ASEAN Cup semi-finals.
In that match, Thailand defeated Singapore 3-1 with two goals from Theerasak Phaipimai and another from Sek San Ratri.
Hudson said, "I am proud of every player. As we know, coming here is a very challenging game, but everyone showed strong performance. Overall, I’m proud of the players. We knew facing such a strong opponent would be tough, but everyone did well. After this, we will return to Bangkok to fully recover and prepare for the next game."
"This is a semi-final match. Our main goal is to secure a win. We had to visit Singapore, a tough team to face. I’m proud of all the players. Singapore performed very well in their games against Indonesia and Vietnam. We could not underestimate them; they did what they do best. There was some disappointment over a few players who played aggressively against us, but credit to our players for solid defense and seizing key chances to score. Personally, I was disappointed we didn’t get one or two more goals, but ultimately we won. We will return to recover fully and aim to perform even better in the next game."
"I didn’t expect that tonight we would control everything we wanted while holding the ball, because if we look back, Singapore did very well against Vietnam and Indonesia. The key goal in a semi-final is to win. We talked with the players at halftime, but we couldn’t control possession. Of the three goals we scored, they came from counterattacks, not from our original planned plays, but from opportunities presented by the flow of the game. So, I changed the system to first prevent conceding more goals. After returning to Thailand, we will work on improving and correcting errors, applying some adjustments to get better in the second match."
"I admit this game was complex to handle because the opponent structured their play and applied pressure. Facing such a team requires adjustments. Our main goal was to control possession and the game as much as possible, but sometimes in football, things don’t go exactly as planned. The important thing was to secure the win, and we did. Returning to Bangkok, we can’t feel comfortable yet, but we do feel better. With this advantage, we must respect our opponent, who will also prepare their plans and countermeasures."
Thailand’s next match in the ASEAN Cup 2026 semi-final second leg will be against Singapore, ranked 148th in the world, at Rajamangala Stadium on 18 August 2026 at 8:00 p.m. GMT+7.