THAILAND 2:0 VIETNAM

14 August 1999 20:30 TST.  SEA GAMES 1999, Brunei FINAL

Report by: AFC NET

Goals Scored:
Thawachai Dongtrakul (THA) (40'), Dusit Charlesmsan (THA) (85').

Cautions:
Choketawee Promrjit (THA) (16'), Kiatisuk Senamuang (THA) (29'), NGUYEN DUC THANG (VNM) (34'), Chukait Noosalung (THA) (45'), MAI TIEN DUNG (VNM) (49'), Surachai J (THA) (60'), Anuruck Srikero (THA) (89'), Kristada Piandit (THA) (89').

SEA GAMES FINAL

By Michael Church, Editor AFC News Magazine

Thailand returned to the top of South East Asian football with a gold medal winning performance against Vietnam in the final of the South East Asian Games in Brunei.

Goals from Thavatchai Ongtrakul and Dusit Chalermsan sealed Thailand's fourth consecutive Games' title with a 2-0 win over the Vietnamese in front of a packed house in the National Stadium to finish the decade with an impressive record in regional tournaments.

Thailand have played in all five of the decade's SEA Games finals, losing to Indonesia in 1991 before going on to win the next four in a row. They also lifted the inaugural Tiger Cup in Singapore in 1996 but lost out in the 1998 edition, Vietnam beating them in the semi-finals 3-0 before losing to Singapore in the final.

"Everything we have done we have done together," said Thailand's coach Peter Withe after the game. "We have been under pressure since the tournament started because we were three time champions. People want to beat you and knock you off your perch but we battled well for the whole game.

"We still have a little bit of catching up to do and we are looking at catching up with teams like Kuwait, Iran, Korea and Japan while the others in South East Asia are looking to catch up with us and they are catching us very quickly. The four semi-finalists are pushing each other and that's good for Asian football."

The Thais had the majority of the play in the first half, with Sakesan Pituratana and Kiatisuk Senamuang both going close before Ongtrakul opened the scoring with a thunderous strike from 30 yards in the 39th minute, the midfielder firing home after good build-up play by Surachai Jattarapatarapong.

Vietnam, though, came back strongly with Le Huynh Duc just failing to score as the first period went into added time.

And the Vietnamese continued to press for the equaliser after the resumption, Nguyen Duc Thang seeing his header of Nguyen Hong Son's cross sail just over the bar while substitute Nguyen Van Sy flashed an effort across the face of goal.

The killer strike came with just four minutes to go. With Vietnam becoming increasingly desperate to equalise, Dusit struck from the edge of the area, his shot finding the back of the net as team-mate Kritsada Piandit stepped over the ball.

"It was very difficult for the keeper to see where the ball was going because Kritsada was in the way," said Withe, "but it was a fine strike. In training we recorded the power of some of Dusit's shooting and he was hitting the ball at 125 kilometres an hour which is fairly hard!"