FINALISTS EXPECT MATCH TO GO TO THE WIRE

Singapore won the first leg 2-1 last Wednesday at home in a clash that was marred by controversy over the award of a penalty to Singapore by Malaysian referee C. Ravichandran in the 82nd minute.

The match was tied 1-1 until Mustaphic Fahruddin scored from the spot.

Today, voluble Thailand team manager Thavatchai Sajakul went up to the extent of predicting that the match would go to extra-time with penalty kicks deciding the winner.

Singapore head coach Radojko Avramovic, taciturn in contrast to Thavatchai, declined predictions, saying that if actual matches could be scripted in advance, tomorrow’s may just as well proceed to the penalty kicks stage.

However, both team spokesmen were in agreement that the match would be an intense encounter and the controversy that attended the closing stages of the first leg that saw a 15-minute walkout by the Thai team would be consigned to oblivion.

Thavatchai, in particular, have sort shrift to speculation that the negative aspects of the first leg would spill over into the second leg with the Thai team intent on vengeance and the home crowd keyed up to give the Singaporeans a hostile reception.

“We will give no satisfaction to such speculation,” he assured a local and foreign press contingent that has been expecting a needle match with tempers at trigger’s edge.

“Our team will play fair and the crowd will be hospitable to the visitors,” said the veteran Thai manager (right in pic).

Thailand has won the biennial competition for Asean nations three times while Singapore has won it twice.

There has been no other winner of this competition from the nine other members of Asean since the competition was inaugurated in 1996.

Jimmy Napitupulu of Indonesia has been appointed referee for the match with assistant referees Muhammad Yunus Suaidi of Indonesia and Koung Ly of Cambodia.

The fourth official is Nuon Yin Monarath of Cambodia.

Thavatchai said he did not expect iconic Thailand captain Kiatisuk Senamuang to be fielded but he could not be too certain of it.

Kiatisuk, popularly called “Zico”, was not in the Thai team for the first leg.

Avramovic (left in pic) said the Singapore players knew their Thai counterparts well from having played them recently in the King’s Cup in Bangkok in late December and from the presence of Thai players in the S-League.

“They are friends,” he said matter-of-factly, dimming speculation that traces of the first leg’s bad temper would burden the players for the second.