AFF FUTSAL: Thais Power Past Philippines

BANGKOK (20 Oct 2013) – The question which should be answered by the end of the second match day in Group B is whether, can anyone stop hosts Thailand?
The ASEAN powerhouse, the runners-up at the last AFC Futsal Championship last year, did not even have to break much of a sweat as they sauntered past the Philippines 20-1 in their first match of the group.
“There are some players who are new and we need to break them into the squad,” said Thai coach Vic Hermans after the game. “There were some jitters today and this is obviously something that we need to work on.”
Jitters or otherwise, the Thais had classy player Suphawut Thueanklang to rely on when he opened the floodgates with the first goal of the game in the third minute off  a play back from Jirawat Sornwichian.
After that first goal, the Philippines were just there to watch how real ‘Futsal’ is being played without the use of much power but rather the reliance on sublime technique.
Supawhut went on to score five more goals (12^th, 22^nd, 25^th, 33^rd and 33^rd minute) as Kritsada Wongkaeo (5^th, 21^st, 24^th, 29^th, 30^th, 31^st and 34^th), Jirawat (4^th, 11^th, 30^th and 34^th), Kongkhla Lakka (25^th), Nawin Rattanawongswas (17^th) and Sittisak Atirat (9^th).
But the Philippines still managed to give some semblance of a fight back with their only goal of the game in the 35^th minute.
“For us, the score line was not important,” said Baltazar Avelino, the coach of the Philippines. “It was an experience for us to play against a world-class team like Thailand. What more when we get the chance to score against them. It was an honour to play this game.”

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