As Myanmar continue their preparations for the 2014 AFF Suzuki Cup, the team's new sensation, 21-year-old striker Kyaw Ko Ko is pleased to be working under the tutelage of Radojko Avramovic who has won this competition three times with Singapore.
Avramovic was appointed as Myanmar head coach earlier this year and the former Lions' tactician has already stamped his mark on a nation who have flattered to deceive in the past decade without fulfilling their true potential.
Touted as a fast and aggressive unit, Myanmar's best showing at the Suzuki Cup was in 2004 when they reached the semifinals but have been knocked out earlier in their eight other attempts.
Raddy's short tenure as coach has already seen him win his first trophy with the White Angels when they beat Palestine and Philippines to lift the Peace Cup in September.
Myanmar subsequently went on to top the qualifying round of the Suzuki Cup qualifiers a month later to book their spot in Group B, alongside Raddy's former side Singapore, as well as Malaysia and Thailand.
One of the success stories for Myanmar this year has been the rise of Ko Ko who scored four goals in qualifying and already has more than 13 international caps for his country.
Speaking after the team's first training session held at Serangoon stadium since arriving in Singapore, the mercurial forward lauded his coach's ability to bring the best out of the players.
"Not only did we get the right results but it was all the players coming together and playing as a unit which is the reason we managed to qualify for the final round." he said.
"Raddy has been one of the best coaches I have ever had in my young career. He is very warm to the players and his guidance has been very, very good for me."
When asked about Myanmar's chances of progressing to the knockout stages, Ko Ko was quick to state that his side are the underdogs amongst a trio of champions -- Singapore, Thailand and Malaysia have won eight of the nine Suzuki Cup titles since the inception of the tournament in 1996 -- and is hoping that his country can at least give the big boys a run for their money when they kick off their campaign against 2010 champions Malaysia this Sunday at the Jalan Besar stadium.
"All of these three teams are better than us. So we are going to try our best to stick together and achieve what we set out to do which is to give them a good game," he added. "I have not set any personal target for myself but even though I am tasked to score goals, I don't feel any extra pressure because I have a lot of good support from my teammates. We will go into the games as a group and share the pressure together."
While Ko Ko will lead the line in attack, Myanmar will need the likes of Tin Win Aung, Nanda Lin Kyaw Chit and Kyi Lin to provide the assists behind him.
In defence, 58-cap veteran Khin Maung Lwin, who is only 25, will be the backbone for his team while David Htan will patrol in front of the back four as a shield for his otherwise inexperienced defence.