Some recent rivalries -- as well as those of a more historical nature -- will be renewed at the end of this year after Tuesday's draw for the 2024 ASEAN Championship pitted some familiar foes against one another.

All four semifinalists from 2022 will not have to wait as long to lock horns again with their last-four opponents from the previous edition -- after defending champions Thailand were drawn in Group A alongside Malaysia while Vietnam, runners-up from two years ago, are likely to be vying with Indonesia for top spot in Group B.

While not archenemies in the traditional or geographical sense, familiarity has certainly bred contempt with Vietnam and Indonesia sharing an increasingly fierce rivalry after several battles in recent times, both at senior and youth level.

Both teams are also currently in the same group in the second round of Asian qualifiers for the 2026 FIFA World Cup along with Philippines, who have interestingly enough also been drawn in Group B of this year's ASEAN Championship along with Myanmar and Laos.

With two more fixtures to be played before the second round of Asian World Cup qualifying concludes, Philippines will still meet both Vietnam and Indonesia on that front next month -- on June 6 and 11 respectively -- as precursors of what will follow later this year.

But from a more historical perspective, few rivalries in Southeast Asian football come bigger than that of Malaysia and Singapore and the Causeway derby will once again take place in 2024 with the latter also drawn in Group A on Tuesday.

It means that both teams will meet in the group stage of the ASEAN Championship for a second consecutive tournament, with Malaysia claiming the bragging rights last time around following an emphatic 4-1 rout of their neighbours.

Singapore and Thailand are also no strangers given they are both in the same group in the Asian World Cup qualifiers and will meet in that campaign once more on June 11 at Rajamangala Stadium in Bangkok.

Rounding off Group A are Cambodia and the yet-to-be-determined winner of the qualification round, which will be either Brunei Darussalam or Timor-Leste.

Although the Timorese had qualified for back-to-back editions since the ASEAN Championship expanded to a ten-team tournament in 2018, they missed out in 2022 after being stunned in qualifying by Brunei -- who in turn returned to the region's premier international competition for the first time since its inception in 1996.

The Bruneians will host the first leg on Sept. 7 before the return encounter takes place seven days later in Timor-Leste.

Once the group-stage lineup is completed then, teams will have just over two months to finalise their preparations for the 2024 ASEAN Championship -- with the tournament slated to kick off on Nov. 23 and running through to Dec. 21.

2024 ASEAN CHAMPIONSHIP DRAW

Group A

Thailand

Malaysia

Singapore

Cambodia

Qualification winner (Brunei Darussalam or Timor-Leste)

Group B

Vietnam

Indonesia

Philippines

Myanmar

Laos

Source:
courtesy of ESPN

by Gabriel Tan

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