Thailand coach: ‘We made many mistakes’

“We conceded a goal early, so we had to change our tactics as well as the way we play,” the Thai strategist shared after the draw with Vietnam. “We made a lot of mistakes in this match. Congratulations Vietnam, they played very well. I want to thank the players. The team had little time to prepare but got the points today.”

Vietnam got off to a lucky start when Phan Tuan Tai’s long shot hit Jonathan Khemdee’s shoulder and changed direction to open the scoring in the 17th second. Despite conceding later from a good reflex. Due to the slow pace of Nguyen Van Toan and many weak positions, Coach Gong’s army still calmed down to relieve pressure from the opponent, defending the score 1-1 until the end of the first half. In this round, Coach Woorawoot surprised two people in the 28th minute, Benjamin Davis and Wanchat Choosong. “After the first goal, we lost control of the ball,” said Mr. Woorawoot. “I had to put Benjamin on the pitch to get back in the game and take control of the game.”

In the 73rd minute, Vietnam suddenly raised the score to 2-1 with the situation where Tuan Tai pressed the ball like he placed it on the edge of the 16m50 area for Nguyen Van Tung to jump up to catch a one-touch volley. However, the red shirt players could not protect the result, when Suphanat equalized in stoppage time, taking back a point for Thailand. Reclaimed a point at the end of the game, but Mr. Woorawoot did not consider Thailand lucky: “Everything that came was not entirely lucky. We changed our tactics to play better and better for the rest of the match. The team is not doing well partly because Thailand has not had much time to prepare for the first match of the tournament. We have two days to prepare for the next match. Thailand will correct the mistake and bring better results. “.

Before the ball rolled, Vietnam received bad news when many players had stomach pains and could not play. Among these are pillars such as midfielder Thanh Binh or midfielder Hoang Anh. This made Coach Gong Oh-kyun have to “whether the rice picks up the fish sauce”. He ranked two new 19-year-old midfielders Khuat Van Khang and Nguyen Van Truong as the main kickers. Striker Nham Manh Dung, who scored against Thailand in the 31st SEA Games final, kicked the defender. Talking about Vietnam’s “strange” lineup, Coach Woorawoot calmly: “I’m not surprised with Vietnam’s starting lineup. Either way, Vietnam is also Vietnam. Thailand is still Thailand. I have no reason to be surprised.”

The 2-2 draw on June 2 caused Coach Worrawoot to break the circuit to win all the times he led the Thai teams against Vietnam. At the 2016 Nations Cup in Malaysia, he and Thailand U21 won Vietnam by coach Hoang Anh Tuan 2-0. At the 2017 SEA Games in Malaysia, his team again crushed Vietnam 3-0 with the goals of Phitiwat Sukjitthammakul, Picha Autra and Chenrop Samphaodi.

According to the original plan, Coach Mano Polking would lead Thailand U23 to attend the tournament in Uzbekistan. However, after the final defeat against Vietnam at the 31st SEA Games, the Thai Football Federation decided to “return” the U23 team to Woorawoot. They also reformed personnel, by retaining only 10 players who had just attended the SEA Games and calling 14 others. In total, of the 24 players coached by Worrawoot to attend the Asian U23 Championship, nine are playing abroad.

Lam Tho (from Tashkent)