2004 AFF Championship
| 2004 Giải vô địch bóng đá Đông Nam Á 2004 Kejohanan Bola Sepak ASEAN |
|
|---|---|
| Tournament details | |
| Host countries | Vietnam Malaysia |
| Dates | 7 December 2004 – 16 January 2005 |
| Teams | 10 |
| Venue(s) | 5 (in 4 host cities) |
| Final positions | |
| Champions |
 Singapore (2nd title)
|
| Runners-up |  Indonesia |
| Third place |  Malaysia |
| Fourth place |  Myanmar |
| Tournament statistics | |
| Matches played | 27 |
| Goals scored | 113 (4.19 per match) |
| Top scorer(s) |
Ilham Jaya Kesuma (7 goals) |
| Best player |
Lionel Lewis
|
The 2004 AFF Championship, officially known as the 2004 Tiger Cup, was jointly hosted by Vietnam and Malaysia from 7 December to 16 January 2005 and participated by the national football teams of Southeast Asia.
The championship started off with group matches, where the top two teams from each group advanced to the semi-finals and the final, which was played in a home and away format.
In the group matches, Indonesia, coached by former Thailand coach Peter Withe, emerged as the Group A winners with ten points, 17 goals scored and none conceded. They were the hot favourites to win the 2004 AFF Championship after bundling out the hosts Vietnam with an unexpected 3–0 victory. Less than a day after the match had ended, the Vietnam Football Federation requested the resignation from its national coach Edson Tavares, despite his requests to stay on until the last match. Singapore, led by Raddy Avramovic pipped out the hosts by just a single point and remained to be the only team in the championship to not lose a single match.
Following the tournament motto "Anything can happen", Myanmar, under coach Ivan Kolev emerged as the surprise, holding defending champions Thailand to a draw and beating Malaysia on their own turf.
All teams from member associations of the ASEAN Football Federation (AFF) participated with the exception of Brunei. However, they would be replaced by the world's newest country when sponsors Tiger Beer stated in May 2004 that East Timor would be joining the competition. This kept the tournament at 10 teams.
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