Thailand take on Singapore in their opening match of the Asean U19 Championship in Surabaya, Indonesia, today.
Thailand coach Emerson Pereira is hoping to have a good tournament. "We have been training very hard for the past month and we have had five warm-up matches in the build-up to the tournament. The last two warm-up games helped me decide on our starting eleven and now we are ready to have a good tournament," said Emerson at a pre-match press conference yesterday.
"We will try to do our best in this tournament and our goal is to at least reach the final. However, we have to focus on one game at a time, starting with the match in the group stage, the semi-final and then the final. All of our 23 players are ready and performed well in the past. For the first match, we will choose the best players for the game," said Emerson.
Striker Caelan Ryan said, "Of course, we have to do our best in every game in this competition and I hope we will be successful in this tournament. Every player is trying very hard in order to show his best form and I hope we can win the tournament."
The match kicks off at 7.30pm.
Malaysia and Brunei, the other two teams in Group C, also face off today.
The winners from the three groups plus the best second-placed team will qualify for the semi-finals.
Siwakorn off to Paris
Thai referee Siwakorn Phu-udom left for France yesterday to take on his role as match official at the Paris Olympic Games.
Siwakorn, who is a Fifa Elite referee, has been selected to be one of the video assistant referees (VAR) match officials throughout the tournament.
Siwakorn is the third Thai referee chosen for the Olympic Games after Wanchai Suwaree in the 1968 Mexico Olympics and Pirom Un-prasert in the 1996 Atlanta Olympic Games.