2015 SEA Games Goal Recap

Football competition at the 2015 South East Asian Games (SEA Games) in Singapore has finished. Thailand successfully retained their status as gold medalist following a 3-0 win over Myanmar in the final at Singapore National Stadium. The success confirms Thailand’s reign in the sub-continent in the last 3 years. From 2013 to 2015, the War Elephants have won 2 SEA Games gold medals and 1 ASEAN Championship.

While Myanmar bring home the silver medal, Vietnam secured the 3rd spot for the bronze medal with a 5-0 thrashing against Indonesia. As for Indonesia, runner-ups in the 2011 and 2013 editions, the no-medal outcome appears as an augmentation of disappointment after FIFA suspended the PSSI (Indonesian FA).

One of the most interesting part of football is surely goals. The moment when the ball goes between the posts and under the cross bar always brings not only excitement, but also bitterness to each individuals. With at least 3 goals/ match average, 2015 SEA Games was quite the entertainment. Here are the recaps of goals in the tournament.

Superlatives
The tournament itself produced 108 goals from 29 matches (3.72 goals/ match). The champions Thailand became the most productive team with 24 goals in their account, followed by Vietnam with 23. Remarkably, Thailand only conceded once throughout the tournament! Thus making them the least conceded team in the tournament. To make it more interesting, the only team who scored against the Thais is Vietnam in the group stage, in which Thailand won 3-1.

219 players were registered in the tournament, but only 61 of them who managed to put their names in the score sheet. After the final, there are 3 names at the top of the list of goal scorers: Chananan Pombubpha (THA), Vo Huy Toan (VIE), and Sithu Aung (MYA). Fun fact about the top scorers, each players represent the 3 positions of football. Pombubpha is forward, Huy Toan is a midfielder, and Sithu is naturally a wing back.

Vietnam’s right winger Ho Ngoc Thang provided more assists than any other player in the tournament. 6 out of 23 goals for Vietnam were provided by Ngoc Thang.

On the opposite, Brunei’s goalkeeper Hj Mohd Dani Mohd Ahsanuddin conceded more goals than any other keepers. Dani appeared in 4 matches for Brunei and had to pick up the ball from his goal 16 times.

Totals
The 108 goals can be detailed down based on several parameters. From the group stages, there were 92 goals in two groups. Group A produced 40 goals, while Group B, with more participants, produced 52 goals. The last 4 matches of knockout stage produced 16 goals, in which 10 of them were scored against Indonesia.

In terms of position, the goals can also be broken down based on the players’ natural position. Surprisingly, more goals came from midfielders rather than strikers. Midfielders scored 49 goals in total, while strikers could only produce 35 goals. The other 24 were scored by defenders.

Based on location of the last attempt before the ball crossed the goal line, the goals from inside the penalty area reached up to 88 goals (81%), while the other 20 (19%) came from outside the area.

By process, open play situation produced 77 goals (71%) while the rest came from dead ball situation: 10 goals from penalty and 21 goals from set piece. There were 6 goals from direct free kick shot, 7 goals from corner kick, and 8 goals from free kick set piece.

Lastly, based on body parts, right foot still produced more goals than left foot and head. 61 goals came from right foot, while left foot generated 30 goals. The other 17 goals came from headers.

Firsts and Last
Le Thanh Binh (Vietnam) scored the first goal of the tournament in the curtain raiser on May 29 against Brunei. The goal came in the 24th minute of the first half from inside the penalty area. Thus made Brunei goalkeeper, Hj Mohd Dani Mohd Ahsanuddin, as the first keeper to concede a goal. The goal itself became the first goal from an open play situation, which also introduced Ho Ngoc Thang as the first assist provider.

The first goal from set piece also came in the first match. In fact, it was Vietnam’s second goal in that 6-0 win against Brunei. Tranh Phi Son’s header following Nguyen Cong Phuong’s free kick made it 2-0 for Vietnam in the 47th minute.

Again in the first match, Mac Hong Quan’s half volley in the 75th minute which made the scoreline 3-0, became the first by a substitute. Hong Quan replaced Thanh Binh in the 64th minute. Not only that, the goal also became the first from outside the penalty’s box.

The second match featured Thailand versus Lao PDR. Thailand’s first goal was scored by Narubadin Weerawatnodom from Perapat Nothechaiya’s corner kick and became the first from corner kick set-piece. Later on in the same match, Chananan Pombubpha became the first player to score from a spot kick in the 62nd minute. The penalty was awarded following Lao’s Sengdao Inthilath’s foul towards Nurul Sriyankem.

The first free kick shot goal came in the 5th day (June 2) when Vietnam faced Malaysia at Bishan Stadium. Nguyen Cong Phuong’s swerve shot landed neatly in the top-left corner of Mohd Farhan Abu Bakar’s goal, and wrapped the game to a 5-1 result in favor of the Vietnamese.

Last goal of the tournament was scored –obviously- in the final match between Thailand and Myanmar. Pinyo Inpinit, who came in for Rungrath Phumichantoek in the 60th minute, scored Thailand’s 3rd goal 18 minutes after his introduction.

For a more fun way to see the goal recapitulation of SEA Games 2015, check out the image below