Courtesy: Asean Football

INVENTIVE THAILAND TRIUMPH AGAIN

BANGKOK (May 7, 2005) - Thailand’s tactical ingenuity made the difference against Malaysia in the final of the Asean Futsal Championship at Hua Mak Stadium which ended in a 5-1 win for the defending champions.

The laurel of Asean champions sits easily on Thai shoulders as their players showed they had more ideas and were not averse to employing them even to the extent of deploying goalkeeper Somkid Chuenta in attack.

This they did when the match rapidly settled into a lively stalemate with Malaysia aggressively attacking, albeit without penetration, and Thailand cagey and waiting for goal scoring chances.

These came through Thai inventiveness in the face of dour Malaysian defending. In the 5th minute Somkid advanced past the halfway line to exchange passes with Panuwat Janta, a manoeuvre that bemused the Malaysian players enough to allow Panuwat to toe the ball home through a gap in the defence that developed.

The Thais also showed inventiveness in dealing with Malaysian attacks that came off an intercepting Thai limb. In the 7th minute all Panuwat did when he collected such a rebound was to backheel it to a lurking Anucha Manjarem who scored.

By contrast, the Malaysians had little by way of ideas to keep the roiling Thai attack in check. This dryness only allowed Thailand to become more confident as their players moved the ball around to force the Malaysians into more error.

Panuwat was on target again in the 15th minute after Prasert Innui had put him through. Thailand went into halftime with a 3-0 lead.

The second half replicated the first in that the Malaysians continued to be clueless when attacking while Thailand, with a comfortable lead in hand, just looked for the error to hand them scoring opportunities.

Narong Khongkaew in the 27th minute and Anucha in the 39th minute further underscored the efficacy of this Thai approach.

Jamhuri Zainuddin broke the Malaysian duck with a goal in the 38th minute.