PUBLISHED ONSeptember 30, 2026 12:50 PMBYShafiq ApandiBANDUNG - The last time Gavin Lee sent a Singapore team out against Malaysia, he was an interim coach in his first match in charge. It ended with a 2-1 loss.
He will meet the Causeway rivals again on Thursday (Oct 1), this time in a FIFA ASEAN Cup group decider that Singapore must win. Lee insists the two occasions cannot be compared.
"It's not apples to apples," the 36-year-old told AsiaOne at the Pullman Bandung Grand Central on Wednesday, adding that the Malaysia team he faced at Bukit Jalil last year and the one he meets now are very different.
FIFA later overturned that result to a 3-0 win for Singapore after ruling that Malaysia had fielded ineligible players, and interim coach Tan Cheng Hoe has since called up a newly naturalised trio - the "newer players" that Lee said Malaysia "didn't have before".
Singapore have changed too. When he started, Lee said, the challenge was getting players to trust that people cared about them, because "it's been a while since they've experienced any sort of TLC (tender loving care)".
Since then, the trust and belief have grown, the Lions coach said, and the team are "at a better place than last September" because he no longer has to address what he did then.
"We keep building on it," he added.
For Lee, belief has to be backed by evidence.
"Just because I tell you to believe, it's not like you're going to believe," he said.
The scoreline, however, is not the only evidence Lee looks for.
He said the team can control neither results nor "the way people want to evaluate us", only their own growth and performances.
Singapore have sought out stronger opponents, knowing they will not always win.
Learning to embrace that discomfort and still compete, Lee noted, was "the first step of progress".
At the ASEAN Championship in July and August, the Lions held eventual champions Vietnam to a goalless draw and came from behind to draw 1-1 with Indonesia.
They lost their semi-final to Thailand 4-3 on aggregate, but won the second leg 2-1 in Bangkok, their first victory on Thai soil since 2009.
Even in the 2-0 defeat in Jakarta on Sept 25, a full-strength Indonesia had most of the ball but found few clear openings against a compact Singapore, and the second goal came after the Lions were reduced to 10 men.
"When you get overloaded, and you can adapt to it, that's how you get better for it," Lee told us.
He sees this tournament the same way.
Indonesia and Malaysia have their full squads available, including players based in Europe and in the AFC Champions League Elite, which he called "the kind of overload that we as a team need" before an Asian Cup where Singapore are grouped with Australia, Iraq and Tajikistan.
And when results were needed, they came. Singapore came from behind to win 2-1 away to both India and Hong Kong last year, reaching the AFC Asian Cup on merit for the first time, and finished the qualifiers unbeaten.
Asked what has changed beyond results, national captain Hariss Harun pointed to "a lot more clarity and purpose in what we are doing".
The 35-year-old, who has been in the national team for nearly two decades, described a squad with a good mix of younger and older players who push one another, and briefings at the start of each international window that leave staff and players alike clear about their roles.
"You can see games where we don't play so well, or the result is against us. We don't give up easily," he said.
"We're always there till the final whistle."
He traced the team's belief to the Asian Cup qualifying campaign, when away trips to India and Bangladesh meant taking on hostile environments as well as opponents. That, he said, showed their mental toughness.
"Evidence is one thing, but doing the actual work is another thing," he said.
Singapore, currently ranked 146th in the world, are third in Group A on three points after the defeat by Indonesia and a 1-0 win over Bangladesh.
Malaysia, ranked 136th, and Indonesia have four points each after their goalless draw on Sept 28.
Only a win at the Si Jalak Harupat Stadium, where kick-off is at 8.30pm Singapore time, will lift the Lions above Malaysia.
It would guarantee a top-two finish, and send them into the Oct 5 final if hosts Indonesia fail to beat bottom side Bangladesh in Jakarta at the same time.
"We might be the smaller nation, but we don't really care," said Lee.
"We just go out there and give our best every single time."
The Harimau Malaya are not taking the Lions lightly. Interim coach Tan Cheng Hoe said at his side's training session that Singapore deserve respect, praising their discipline, teamwork and fighting spirit, and credited Lee with taking them to the Asian Cup.
"Although he's young, he's doing well," Tan said.
Tan may be without winger Faisal Halim, who missed that session with an injury picked up against Indonesia. Lee has defender Safuwan Baharudin back from the suspension that kept him out against Bangladesh.
"These are the kind of games that we live for, and against Malaysia no less," said Lee, adding that he does not need to motivate his players for it.
Singapore have scored once in two matches at the tournament. Lee said the chances had been there and that he was treating the Malaysia game "in isolation", with the job being to "neutralise them, but at the same time, go and knock on their doors".
Hariss does not expect a repeat of any earlier meeting either.
No two matches turn out the same, he said, and because the 90-odd minutes can be chaotic, the task is to stay composed and keep to the structure the team know, not to try something new.
On television or in the stands, Hariss tells his teammates, someone is always watching the Lions for the first time.
"So it's always a point to prove for us," he said.
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