Away goal pain nags Thailand

Three-time champions Thailand are aiming to ensure they avoid the pitfall of an “away goal” in the semi-final second leg against the Philippines today as they bid to reach the final of the Asean Championship.

The tie is delicately poised following a goalless stalemate in Saturday’s first leg in Manila. The result handed the Thais a slight advantage ahead of the return leg at the sold-out Rajamangala National Stadium as they go into the game with the knowledge that a win would be enough to send them through. 

However, the away-goals rule means the Thais would be eliminated if the game ends in a draw after 90 minutes or after extra time. In that scenario, the Philippines would advance to their first final in the biennial tournament.

Thai team manager Kasem Jariyawatwong has ensured his players understand the situation against the opponents, who are currently the region’s top team on Fifa’s world rankings. 

“We need to make it clear to the players that if the game ends with a score draw it will be the visitors who go through thanks to their away goal. So, we need to be careful.

“Whether the game goes into extra time or not, if the visitors are able to score and it ends with the draw we would go out. If it ends goalless after the extra 30 minutes, we would need a penalty shoot-out to decide the winners.

“We don’t want the game to reach that point so we will try to finish them off in regular time,” Kasem told reporters at the pre-match press conference yesterday. 

The Thai manager also revealed that forward Adisak Kraisorn, the team’s leading scorer in the competition with two goals, received a one-match suspension for the red card he received in the second half at Rizal Memorial Stadium in the Filipino capital. “Adisak only got a one-game ban, which is acceptable for us. He was not the one who started the trouble. He just reacted after being provoked by a Filipino player. So the punishment was acceptable,” Kasem said.

After the other semi-final tie between Malaysia and Vietnam was marred by crowd violence in the first leg in Kuala Lumpur, Kasem said the authorities would try to ensure a trouble-free game at the full-house Rajamangala.

“We don’t want to see [fans clash] in our country. The authorities will try to keep everything under control and we hope to avoid trouble.”

Assistant coach and former national defender Chokthawee Promrat is counting on strong support at the venue, despite it being some time since a game was played here in front of a capacity crowd.

“Our target is definitely the title. However, we won’t write off the Filipinos after seeing how difficult it was to beat them in Manila.

“Now, we’re close to 100 percent ready as we went straight into training after returning from the Philippines. We told the players not to pressure themselves and to try to play as usual. We’ll get a lot of fans behind us for this game so we need to use it to our advantage,” said Chokthawee. 

With the Thais needing a goal and having to make do without two strikers – the injured Kirati Kiewsombat and suspended Adisak – Chokthawee revealed contingency plans in place to secure the win.

“We’ve already tested a team set-up without the pair, with Chanathip [Songkrasin] pushed up in advanced role to shoulder the attacking responsibilities, and it went well. It shouldn’t be a problem even though we won’t have our main players.”