ASEAN Football Championship: Thailand crash out after 1-2 loss to Indonesia

By Les Tan/Red Sports

Video copyright of World Sport Group

Jakarta, Tuesday, December 7, 2010 — Thailand failed to qualify for the semi-finals of the ASEAN Football Championship (AFF Suzuki Cup) when they conceded two penalties in the last 10 minutes to go down 1-2 to Indonesia.

A Suree Sukha volley half way through the second half gave Thailand the lead in a game they controlled. However, the Thais panicked and Indonesia’s Bambang Pamungkas scored twice from the penalty spot.

“Overall I thought we played quite well tonight but after we scored the goal, we seemed to panic a bit and gave the ball away a bit too much,” said Thailand head coach Bryan Robson on the affsuzukicup.com website.

The penalty calls were also controversial from the Thai point of view. First, the referee gave a penalty for an alleged foul on Christian Gonzales in the 81st minute and then Thai Panupong Wongsa handled a goal-bound shot by Bambang.

Robson was not impressed with the penalty calls.

“I think that the officials haven’t been very kind to us in this competition. In the first half, there was a blatant foul on Suree but the referee didn’t seem to see it and gave him a yellow card instead,” said Robson.

“In the second half, the ball hit the post, went across the box and their player went down but he managed to see a foul this time.

“And then right at the end, when a player blasts a ball at you from two yards out and it hits you on the arm, it’s beyond me how that can be a penalty and you can get sent off as well. I thought that just summed the referee up,” added Robson.

Indonesia head coach Alfred Riedl thought the Thais deserved at least a draw.

“If you take the game over 90 minutes, a draw would have been a fair result because the Thais tried hard to score. In the first half, they were not dangerous but in the second half they created a lot more chances because they had to take a risk,” said Riedl.

The Indonesians topped their group with their third consecutive win while the Thais go home without winning a single group game.

In another game, Malaysia thrashed Laos 5-1 to secure their qualification for the semi-final stage.