ASEAN Football Championship: Laos hold Thailand to shock 2-2 draw

By Les Tan/Red Sports

Thailand 2 Laos 2 (Video copyright of World Sport Group)

Jakarta, Wednesday, December 1, 2010 — Laos almost pulled off a shock win over Thailand before conceding a late equaliser in their ASEAN Football Championship (AFF Suzuki Cup) Group A game which finished 2-2.

Laos took a shock lead in the 54th minute when Konekham Inthammavong’s downward header looped over the Thai goalkeeper. However, Thailand equalised in the 67th minute when Sarayoot Chaikamdee curved a beautiful shot beyond the Lao keeper from the edge of the box.

Laos then looked like they had done enough to win when Kanlaya Sysomvang scored eight minutes from time but Sarayoot saved face for the three-time champions with his late equalising header in stoppage time.

“Overall the game was disappointing for us but quite a few of the players had a hard game on Sunday. We looked like a team that didn’t prepare well for the tournament and had not trained much together,” said Thailand coach Bryan Robson on the affsuzukicup.com website, referring to a Thai FA Cup final involving 12 national players.

“It was a sluggish performance but at least the players showed good character to come back well twice. Our choices were limited because we had a lot of tired players but I thought that we were more threatening when Datsakorn (Thonglao) and Teerasil (Dangda) came on as substitutes late in the second half,” added Robson.

For Laos coach David Booth, it was a significant achievement for a country that has never beaten Thailand in its football history.

“We can consider it as two points lost but, as our team manager said earlier, Laos have not even managed a draw against Thailand in 35 years so we have to be thankful for small mercies,” said the Englishman on affsuzukicup.com.

“The players worked their socks off tonight. We have a very young team, many of whom are playing in a stadium and an atmosphere like this for the first time. But I thought that they did a very, very good job today.”