THAIS WIN BUT NOT WITH EMPHASIS

Victory by a larger margin would have placed them firmly in the driver’s seat in the group for a semi-final berth.

Now Thailand will only have to hold Malaysia who also had a 4-0 margin of victory over the Filipinos earlier in the competition.

The two teams meet on Tuesday in their final group match and both go into that crucial game with four points each and identical goal difference.

The Thais played with their iconic skipper Kiatisuk Senamuang who was rested to give him more time to recover from a hip injury.

The absence of Kiatisuk meant that the team lacked cohesion, especially in attack.

Though markedly superior in skill and technique to the Philippines, there was a brittle quality to the Thai play.

The Thais took 15 minutes to break Filipino resistance mainly through the use of the through pass.

Sarayoot Chaikamdee ran to such a pass from Sutee Suksomkit to open the scoring.

Six minute later Pipat Thonkanya helped himself to another through ball to score.

When on 28 minutes, Pipat crossed for Sarayoot to score, a rout was in prospect.

But that was not to be. In the 35th minute, Sarayoot missed a penalty and Thailand went into halftime only three goals ahead.

The second half was a tale of misses by the Thais.

It looked like the Filipinos would hold them to a scoreless half but on 82 minutes, Natthaphong Samana scored to save Thailand some embarrassment about their poor scoring rate in comparison with the chances they created.

The Philippines had a couple of chances to score in the second half but Christopher Greatwich missed on both occasions.

In comments after the match, Thailand head coach Chanvit Phalajivin pronounced himself happy with the result but not with the performance of his team.

“I’m not happy with the teamwork and combinations shown by the team. The players appeared overanxious to score and missed because of that. They could have passed the ball instead of being hasty to score.

“The teamwork was much better in the earlier match against Myanmar but was poor in this match.”

Philippine head coach Jose Riston Caslib said his boys lost track of their game plan after the Thais had scored their first goal in the 15th minute.

“Until then we were on an equal footing with the Thais but the mentality of my players was not on the same level as them.”

Further reaction to Thailand’s 4-0 win over the Philippines in their Group A match of the Asean Football Championship in Bangkok on Sunday.

THAILAND COACH CHANVIT PHALAJIVIN

I am satisfied with the score but not satisfied with the performance of our players. There was too much individual play – the combinations and tactics were so, so today.

I am not happy with the tactics of our team. They were nervous and also tried too many times to score themselves – sometimes there was no goalkeeper and they did not pass. They all wanted to score.

I am happy with the score but not happy with the teamwork. When you are a coach you want teamwork and goals. Against Myanmar in the first game we had good teamwork but just one goal, today we had goals but no teamwork.

In the final game against Malaysia I need the team to win; I cannot sit back and wait for a draw. It is a home game and we have to win

PHILIPPINES COACH JOSE ARISTON CASLIB

We lost our game plan in the 15th minute when we surrendered the first goal. The first 15 minutes of the game we were on equal footing with the Thai team.

When we lost the first two goals – that changed the situation. Our mentality is not on par with the Thai team. We tried to adjust in the second half and again we did well for a long spell but they overpowered us in the last 10 minutes.

The main plan from the first half was to throw high balls up front and in the second half that caused some problems for Thailand and we had several chances.

In the last 10 minutes it was just fatigue on our part, a lack of match fitness.

We have to give credit to Thailand; they knew the purpose of the match.