Thai team fails to qualify for Women’s World Cup for 3rd time
Thailand’s female football team failed to qualify for the FIFA Women’s World Cup 2023 after losing to Cameroon in a play-off match on Saturday.
The stronger African team beat the Thai side by two goals in their match at the Waikato Stadium in Hamilton, New Zealand.
As Thailand lost the chance to contest the final round of women’s World Cup football for a third time, they will have to wait four years to try again.
Thailand women's national football team is nicknamed “Chaba Kaew” after the pink elephant heroine in the Thai computer animated film “Khan Kluay” (“Blue Elephant”).
They managed to qualify for the FIFA Women's World Cup twice, in 2015 and 2019.
Thailand got off to a strong start in Saturday’s game, but Cameroon slowly began to take charge of the pitch.
The Thais struggled to break out of their own half as the match wore on but did have one near miss on the hour-mark when captain Nipawan Panyosuk found the side-netting with a free-kick from just outside the area, Supersport.com reported.
Cameroon’s substitute Gabrielle Onguene scored both goals in the second half. She broke the 0-0 deadlock with 11 minutes remaining and made the second goal three minutes later.
Cameroon goalkeeper Ange Bawou got a red card for a dangerous challenge in the final minutes of the match, but Thailand was unable to find a way past her replacement.
The match was Cameroon's first-ever win against an Asian team, according to Supersport.com. Their three previous run-ins with teams from the continent all ended in defeat.
