Malaysia will be renewing their rivalry with V. Sundramoorthy after the former Singapore international was hired as the new national team head coach of Laos, as revealed by Asean Football Federation.
The 52-year-old will be the second Singaporean to take charge of Laos after Mike Wong was at the helm in the previous Suzuki Cup back in 2016. Then Laos failed to qualify for the tournament proper after finishing second behind Cambodia in the qualifying group stage.
Sundramoorthy was previously on the books at Lions XII, Negeri Sembilan and Tampines Rovers with the Singapore national team being his last official head coach role prior to moving to Laos. It was back in April of this year that Sundramoorthy decided to step away from the Singapore job after almost two tough years.
Given his affiliation with Lions XII, Sundramoorthy will be well aware of the capabilities of Malaysia and could well play an important role in trying to halt Malaysia's progress in the tournament when the two teams meet in the group stage.
For the 2018 edition, Laos are placed in Group A together with Malaysia, Vietnam, Myanmar and Cambodia. Laos kicks off their campaign by hosting Vietnam on 8 November before travelling to Kuala Lumpur to face Malaysia on 12 November.
Since the AFF Championship was started back in 1996, Laos have never got out of the group stage and have only ever won two matches from 33 matches played thus far.
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