Defending champions, Thailand sealed their place at the top of Group B when they defeated Malaysia 6-3 in a AFF HDBank Futsal Championship match at the Phu Tho Indoor Stadium this afternoon.
The Thais, 12-times winners of this tournament, are unbeaten throughout the group stage and have amassed a maximum nine points from three wins. They earlier defeated Laos 14-0 and Timor Leste 17-2.
“We were playing against a team which has been making a lot of progress in the last few years. And while we may be here with a younger team, the players showed a lot of character to win this game,” said Thai head coach Jose Mendez. “It does not matter who we play against in the semi-finals. Either teams will be difficult.”
With the defeat, Malaysia settled for second place in the group but along with Thailand have qualified for the Asian Futsal Championship in Chinese Taipei next year. For the record, the top four teams here will advance to the Asian meet.
In a game to determine the top two group positions, Thailand were forced to work hard before claiming their win. It was a tough battle they tried to crack each other’s defence, then midway through the first half, the Thais finally broke the impasse. A cool 1-2 between Chaivat Jamgrajang and Muhammad Osmanmusa saw the latter easily send the Thais ahead.
A minute later, and the Thais were celebrating again when a similar move between Sorasak Phoonjungreed and Ronnachai Jungwongsuk produced a second goal. Osamanmusa bagged another in the 15th minute before the teams trooped off for the break.
Thailand stretched the score to 5-0 with further strikes from Nattavut Madyalan (25th) and Nawin Rattanawongswa (27th). The Malaysians, who had done well in the first ten minutes of the first half, charged back through Mohd Khairul Effendy in the 29th minute but Warut Wangsama-aeo blasted a sixth a minute later.
But the Malaysians did well and countered twice through Mohd Khairul (32nd) and Mohd Azwann Ismail (34th) to put the final score at 6-3.
“We recovered in the second half and if we had converted some of the chances, we could have made it even closer,” added Malaysian head coach Chiew Chun Yong.
Later in the afternoon, Timor Leste and Laos slugged it out to avoid anchoring the group. In the end, Laos emerged victors with a 6-4 win. The two teams battled furiously and were tied 3-3 at the break.
RESULTS
Today
Group B: Thailand bt Malaysia 6-3, Laos bt Timor Leste 6-4
Group A: Vietnam vs Indonesia, Myanmar vs Philippines
Oct 27
Group B: Malaysia bt Laos 6-3, Thailand bt Timor Leste 17-2
Group A: Indonesia bt Brunei 9-0, Vietnam bt Philippines 24-0
Oct 26
Group A: Myanmar bt Brunei 13-0, Indonesia bt Philippines 21-0
Group B: Thailand bt Laos 14-0, Malaysia bt Timor Leste 7-2
