PHNOM PENH, Cambodia -- From the stormy look on the face of Singapore coach Gavin Lee as he entered the room for his post-match news conference after the opening game of the 2026 ASEAN Championship on Friday evening, it almost seemed as though his team had lost.
It was, in fact, the exact opposite scenario.
The Lions had just recorded a 2-1 victory away to Cambodia, at Morodok Techo National Stadium, to get their Group A campaign off to a triumphant start. And the manner in which it was achieved -- courtesy of an amazing acrobatic effort by Ilhan Fandi in the 11th minute of injury-time -- would have ordinarily sparked delirium.
But Singaporean football has entered a new era under Lee. They are far from the finished article, but that does not mean there aren't minimum standards to live up to.
"Non-negotiables," in Lee's words.
And in a match they entered as favourites yet almost drew, and could easily have lost, simply getting the win did not automatically mean cause for celebration.
The evening was initially going fine with Singapore leading at the break courtesy of Shawal Anuar's opener, only for them to suddenly look like they were going to crack at any moment under the pressure of a spirited response from Cambodia in the second half.
The hosts equalised in the 55th minute through an emphatic finish from Ouk Sovann and arguably caused the bigger scares for the opposition, even if Singapore did have an 88th-minute effort ruled out only after an eight-minute VAR review -- which led to the extended period of stoppage time that ultimately paved the way for Ilhan's sublime winner.
On the eve of the contest, Lee had been asked what he felt would constitute progress for his side at the tournament even if he did not want to equate that with any tangible target -- such as emulating the semifinal finish Singapore achieved in the previous edition.
His response was for his players to show greater consistency in dealing with difficult moments throughout a match -- an area in which Friday's performance suggests they still have plenty of improvement, by his own critique.
"We go into every game with certain 'agreements' and, today, we didn't stick to it," Lee said.
"Especially in the first half.
"At halftime, we showed everyone the mirror. I think in the second half, we started off better defensively. In the first half, we left way too much space to defend and suffered unnecessarily.
"Something we always say is that we need to own discomfort. In the second half, we had a lot of uncomfortable moments and we allowed the moments to own us.
"That's the big lesson."
Much like anyone else, Lee's demeanour and tone did soften after he had vented his frustrations. He managed to crack a smile or two thereafter.
And when asked by ESPN about the benefit of having a player of Ilhan's ilk capable of winning games with an individual moment of brilliance, the Singapore coach -- who is still only 35 -- did then identify some positives from Friday's display.
"We're very fortunate to have players like Ilhan who can pull off that goal," Lee said.
"I guess I've been painting a doom-and-gloom picture. What we [also] saw today is our resilience. As long as there's a second left, we keep going.
"A slow start doesn't mean a slow finish, but it can hurt you sometimes."
Perhaps the thing that will be most heartening to the Singapore fans is the fact that his charges seem to be completely buying into his level of expectations.
Throughout Lee's critical appraisal of the Lions' showing, player-of-the-match Ilhan was seated to his left with a solemn look on his face. He even nodded in agreement a couple of times. His nonplussed expression was not from surprise at -- but in agreement with -- his coach's words.
And speaking to ESPN later, Ilhan said: "We know the performance was below average from everyone today, even myself.
"I was just lucky I could score and help the team but we know we are much better than this. Having qualified for the Asian Cup, we should show we're an Asian Cup team.
"Everyone demands more for themselves. We know it."
To say that Singapore now have standards for themselves would be unfair to Lee's predecessors. Maybe it is a case of him -- the Lions' first local coach after three Japanese tacticians in six years -- simply being able to vocalise this with assertiveness.
Through no fault of their own, due to their words being lost in interpretation, or the coaches simply being unable to fully express themselves as they admirably did their best to speak in a foreign language, those who went before Lee -- like Tatsuma Yoshida and Tsutomu Ogura -- usually only spoke of disappointment or called for better after similarly unsatisfactory performances.
Lee is now verbalising why Singapore should not be content with such below-par displays. Because they fall short of the standards the Lions should be expecting of themselves.
Going even further back in Singapore's coaching history, V. Sundramoorthy used to start almost every post-match news conference -- even after a poor showing -- stating with a trademark sigh: "What can I say? The boys have done great."
Deflecting criticism away from his players, and accepting all the blame, was a commendable aspect of Sundramoorthy's style of management.
Nonetheless, now that Lee is at the helm, it is refreshing to hear that "the boys" haven't done great. Especially even in victory.
