SEA Games Football: Young Lions have middle-of-the-road record since 2001

By Les Tan/Red Sports

Medals have always been the natural and obvious measure of success at the South-east Asian (SEA) Games. Since the SEA Games football tournament was made an under-23 competition in 2001, Singapore have won two bronze medals. Thailand (four) and Malaysia (two) between them have swept all the gold since 2001.

However, beyond the medals, when we look at the cumulative statistics since then, other interesting nuggets of information come through.

BEST WIN-DRAW-LOSE RECORD
Singapore have the fifth best record at U-23 level. They raked up 11 wins, 6 draws, 8 losses (11-6-8) for a winning percentage of 44% (number of matches won divided by number of matches played).

Only three countries have a winning record (i.e. above 50%) since 2001 — Thailand (23-2-4; 79%), Malaysia (19-4-6; 63%) and Vietnam (17-3-12; 53%).

It will take some doing for any SEA country to match the Thais’ record, unless the Thais continue to display the same bad form they did in the 2011 SEA Games.

Vietnam’s record is remarkable for the fact that they still managed a winning percentage despite losing so many matches. Thankfully, from the point of view of neutrals, the Vietnamese don’t seem to believe too much in the virtue of draws.

SCORING RECORD
If you’ve had the niggling feeling that Singapore seem to have problems scoring, the numbers bear that out. Singapore have scored on average just 1.6 goals per game. In contrast, Thailand (2.8), Malaysia (2.5) and Vietnam (2.1) are much more ruthless in front of goal.

Any game involving Singapore has also generally a low-scoring affair, with only an average of 2.7 goals from either end. Only games involving Indonesia (2.6) have a lower average.

If you are a football neutral and just want to watch a game with plenty of goals, Vietnam is your team. Any SEA Games match involving them averaged 3.6 goals from both ends because the Vietnamese were not only a high-scoring team, they also leaked a lot of goals at the back. That’s fun for everyone to watch, except perhaps for their coach on the day.

Thailand and Malaysia are not that far behind. Any match involving either of them had an average of 3.5 goals per game.

You can also put Cambodia and Timor Leste on your list of high-scoring matches to watch, but not because of their scoring prowess. Both these countries leaked an average of four goals per game and opposing teams were probably thrilled to bits to get either country in their group after the draw.

TOP 4 RECORD
If success — and consistency — is measured by the ability to reach the semi-final stage, then Malaysia and Vietnam are tops. Both have qualified for the knockout stage five times each since 2001, while Thailand have done it four times.

Singapore have only appeared twice in the semi-finals while Myanmar have managed one better in the same period.

However, remarkably, for each of the four time the Thais did reach the semis, they also moved on to the final and won it.

The Vietnamese have suffered the most heartbreak. Out of the five times they qualified for the semi-finals, they made the final three times. And then lost all three. (Ouch.)

THAILAND — BEST RECORD
The statistics show that the Thais are in a class of their own since 2001, even though they have not qualified for the semi-finals at the last two SEA Games.

Apart from their SEA-leading 23-2-4 record, they have the best goal scoring record, registering 2.8 goals per game. Also, scoring against them has been notoriously difficult. They leaked an average of only 0.7 goals per game. They qualified for and won four straight SEA Games finals from 2001 to 2007.

However, they had a truly lousy 2011 SEA Games by their own high standards. Their three defeats in Jakarta at the 2011 SEA Games was a shocker because before 2011, they had only lost one match outright (a 1-2 loss to Malaysia at the group stage in 2009).

It will be interesting to see if they can retain their lost air of invincibility at SEA level.

CONCLUSION
You can divide all 12 SEA countries into three basic groups — powerhouses, middle-of-the-roaders, wooden spoonists.

Thailand (23-2-4; 79%), Malaysia (19-4-6; 63%) and Vietnam (17-3-12; 53%), in that order, are SEA powerhouses based on their winning records.

The middle-of-the-roaders don’t break 50%. This group is led by Myanmar (12-6-7; 46%), with Singapore (11-6-8; 44%) and Indonesia (10-5-11; 38%) following closely behind.

Laos (4-4-16; 17%) and Cambodia (1-1-19; 5%) are the wooden spoonists, with the latter threatening to create a whole new (lower) category of their own with such an abysmal record.

Philippines (2-0-6; 25%), Timor Leste (2-0-7; 22%) and Brunei (1-1-6; 13%) have played a lot fewer matches and so they aren’t included in the reckoning for now. Their records, though, don’t seem to suggest they will do much better than Laos at SEA level.

N.B. If other interesting statistical bits strike you, please feel free to share in the comments section below. It will add to our collective knowledge.

SEA Games Top 4 (2001-2011)

SEA Games Football Stats (2001-2011)

SEA Games Football Results (2001-2013)