New Delhi, July 31 -- a point. Vietnam, the tournament favorites, the team their opponents' media had taken to calling home to the Hanoi Haaland, could not find the goal that a capacity crowd in the rain had come to see. The final score was 0-0, and Singapore left Hanoi on top of Group A in the 2026 ASEAN Hyundai Cup.

The result had been shaped before kickoff. Singapore's head coach had generated significant attention in Vietnam after pre-match remarks that the Vietnamese press described as a steroid joke aimed at the hosts' preparation, and the commentary did nothing to cool the atmosphere at My Dinh. Whether the pre-match noise had been tactical is impossible to say, but Singapore played through the hostile environment with the defensi...