source: affsuzukicup.com
In the period of exactly one year, Kiatisuk Senamuang had brought a double success for Thailand football in South East Asia. The former striker and captain of the country, “Zico” took Thailand U-23 team to win the Gold Medal in the 2013 SEA Games. A year after, he was promoted to lead the senior team in the 2014 AFF Championship, and once again, he took Thailand to the first prize.
Also, between those conquests in the sub-continent, Kiatisuk took Thailand to the 4th place in the 2014 Asian Games. Not a bad result, though, considering other Asian footballing giants were among the top 3.
Trusting young and developing players is believed to be the key for Kiatisuk’s success. On the aforementioned competitions, he kept several players on his squad list, such as Kawin Thammasatchanan, Charyl Chappuis, Chanathip Songkrasin and Tanaboon Kesarat. Those players aged no more than 25 when they lifted the 2014 AFF trophy.
By combining his trusted youngsters with experienced players, he built a strong, energetic team for the competition. The team was also equipped with embedded chemistry from the experience of playing together for the national team the whole year.
Drawn in the “Group of Death,” Thailand needed a last minute penalty to win over the co-host Singapore. The win seemed to get the lapse out of the team as they overcame Malaysia in the second match after being trailed twice with the 3-2 full time result. With the semifinals ticket secured, they comfortably beaten Myanmar in the final match of the group with 2 goals to nothing.
In the semifinals against the Philippines, Thailand managed to bring home a scoreless draw from Manila in the 1st leg. The match involved a red card for the young striker Adisak Kraisorn early in the 2nd half. As for the return leg in Bangkok, they won convincingly by 3 goals to nothing and went through to the finals for the second consecutive time.
Malaysia challenged them in the finals as they looked for payback for the result in the earlier meeting. Hosted the first leg, Thailand dominated the game and won 2-0. At this point, many people believed that the trophy is within reach for the Thais. However, Malaysia had and played a different scenario.
Playing in a packed Bukit Jalil National Stadium, the experienced Malaysians struck twice in the first half and even the score on aggregate. They then went ahead in the 13th minute of the second half. As the clock ticked down to the last 10 minutes, Thailand took advantage of the worn out Malaysian players. Charyl scored an all-important away goal on the rebound of Sarach Yooyen’s free kick and put the Thais ahead. Not too long after, Chanathip capitalized the space given by the all-attacking Malaysians and fired the kill shot. Malaysia won the match 3-2, but Thailand won the title with 4-3 final score line on aggregate.
Looking at statistics, Thailand really deserved the title, indeed. They scored the most goals (13) and conceded the fewest (6, same as Myanmar). They created more chances than any other teams totaling up to 79 chances in 7 matches. They were the only team who completed more than 2,000 passes in the competition, totaling up to 2,322 passes. Along with Malaysia, they recorded most successful tackles with 144. Thailand also topped the number of successful dribbles with 52 which came with 55.3% success rate.
On the minus side, Thailand made the most off-target shots in the competition with 52 misguided shots in total. The record resulted in 38.8% shot accuracy, which is the lowest of all participants. Also, Thailand players suffered more fouls than any other teams. In fact, Thailand was the only team who suffered more than 100 fouls in the competition with 113.
3 Thailand players put themselves on top of different statistical records in the competition. The young centre-half Tanaboon Kesarat recorded most intercepts (28) and successful tackles (24). Sarach Yooyen had most successful passes (307). Lastly, Prakit Deeprom had most assists (3). To put the cherry on top, Chanathip Songkrasin was selected to be the competition’s Best Player.
Here are the more detailed statistical facts on the champions Thailand in the 2014 AFF Championship (click on image to enlarge).
