SINGAPORE -- For as long as they have been the dominant force in Southeast Asian football, Thailand have been synonymous with a possession-based style of play that is easy on the eye and one for the purists.
With a seemingly-endless factory line of technically-gifted players, the War Elephants have been the only ones able to sustain this system decade after decade.
But on Saturday, in the first leg of their 2026 ASEAN Championship semifinal against Singapore, they remarkably only had 28% of possession.
It did not seem to matter though, as they still cruised to a 3-1 victory at Jalan Besar Stadium that puts them firmly on course for the final -- with the second half of the assignment coming on Tuesday when they return to home soil for the return encounter at Bangkok's Rajamangala Stadium.
Truth be told, they probably did not need the ball after 26 minutes when they were already leading 2-0 courtesy of Teerasak Poeiphimai's clinically-taken brace. Seksan Ratree added a third six minutes into the second half, before Ilhan Fandi pulled one back for Singapore in the 84th minute.
Thailand have now won all five of their matches so far at the tournament. The streak is even more impressive considering they are without a host of key players that were not released by their clubs for international duty.
Having to deal with these absences has forced Thailand coach Anthony Hudson to get creative.
The War Elephants have excelled operating with a false nine -- either Kakana Khamyok or Worachit Kanitsribampen. Both are offensive-minded but are more attacking midfielders than proper spearheads. But their qualities allow them to drop off the centre-backs, hold up play and then utilise their usual creativity in a more-advanced position.
Meanwhile, the actual strikers -- primarily Teerasak and Yotsakorn Burapha -- start out wide, where they can find more space, but eventually make their way into central areas where they can deal the damage. Teerasak is now up to four goals at the tournament, while Yotsakorn has two to his name.
The system worked to great effect for Thailand's first goal against Singapore, where Kakana drifted deep to receive possession before playing a pass to Seksan that led to the assist for Teerasak.
Still, the fact that the victory came off the back of some electric counterattacking play was not the ideal scenario to Hudson.
"I don't think tonight we really executed what we wanted to do on the ball," Hudson said.
"With regards to how we want to attack, I think what we try to do is set the team to get the best out of the players. A lot of our players are comfortable on the ball, we have good attacking midfielders, like this guy next to me [player of the match Seksan], some good young players.
"I think we're at our best when we have closer connections and shorter passes. We've got players with the ability to run behind the lines. That's really the direction we're headed in.
"It's just that tonight was a difficult game to get into that."
Nonetheless, now that the War Elephants are into the business end of the tournament, Hudson believes that getting the job done was ultimately all that mattered.
"I'm very proud of the players," he added. "To come to a difficult place and put in a really, really solid performance against a very difficult opponent.
"They [Singapore] are a complicated team to play against, just the way they set up. It makes it very difficult to build pressure against a team like this. I actually think one of the biggest things tonight was that we wanted to control the ball more. Sometimes the game plays out the way it does.
"But the objective was to come here and win the game so we can go back to Bangkok with an advantage.
"It's the semifinals. The semifinals and final are about winning. I have to give credit to the players because they defended well and took their opportunities. I think probably we could have scored one or two more goals really -- that was the disappointing part.
"But it was about winning the game, recovery, getting to Bangkok and making sure we deliver a performance there. We're very clear that it's only halftime [in the tie]. We need to go back to Bangkok and make sure we deliver and even bigger performance than tonight."