Tashkent: Coach Victor Hermans claimed Thailand executed a perfect game plan to claim third place at the AFC Futsal Championship with a 8-0 win over Vietnam at Uzbekistan Stadium on Sunday.
Suphawut Thueanklang netted four times, while Jetsada Chudech, Apiwat Chaemcharoen and Jirawat Sornwichian were also among the goals as Thailand bounced back from their penalty shootout defeat by Uzbekistan in the semi-finals.
And the win saw Thailand complete an unbeaten tournament record from their six games ahead of the FIFA Futsal World Cup in Colombia later this year.
“I want to win as that’s my character. We have played Vietnam many times and they are always strong against us,” said Hermans, who saw his side also beat Vietnam 3-1 during the group stage.
“They analyse us and we analyse them, and today we got the better of them. In the first game against them they pressed up against us, so today I told my players to play long and when they did that it worked.
“My players were not happy this morning because I changed some things. My philosophy is to regularly change the way we play, though, and I knew what was best for my team."
Thailand secured back-to-back wins over Tajikistan, Chinese Taipei and Vietnam en route to topping Group C before seeing off Australia 6-1 in the quarter-finals.
But a 3-1 penalty shootout defeat by hosts Uzbekistan following a 2-2 draw ended Thailand’s hopes of a maiden AFC Futsal Championship title.
Match report: Thailand 8-0 Vietnam
“I think we are better than Uzbekistan although the semi-final was an even game,” added Hermans.
"I wanted to be in the last two, but maybe it’s better my team didn't have to play Iran because we saw what they did to Vietnam.”
Vietnam, meanwhile, ended the tournament with back-to-back heavy defeats having lost 13-1 to Iran in the semi-finals.
But after finishing second in Group C behind Thailand, Bruno Formoso’s 2014 quarter-finalists secured a first-ever FIFA Futsal World Cup appearance following a dramatic penalty shootout win over Japan following a thrilling 4-4 draw after extra-time.
“We are happy with the tournament, but a little bit sad because the last two results were not good,” said Formoso.
“We were very tired because we fought very hard to get to the semi-finals. Maybe after the World Cup qualification we lost our concentration a bit, but it’s difficult to play against teams like Iran and Thailand when not at your best.
“We didn’t start well today and they scored early and being 3-0 down at half-time makes it hard to recover and change the dynamic of the game. We improved a bit in the second half, but missed many clear chances.
"I arrived two months before the tournament in 2014 and we made the quarter-finals; this time we made the last four, so we are improving step-by-step."
Photo: AFC
Source: the-afc.com