Even the Thai media did not agree with Supachok Sarachat's ugly actions in the second leg of the 2024 AFF Cup final against the Vietnamese team.
Supachok Sarachat's goal to make it 2-1 in the second leg of the AFF Cup 2024 final last night (January 5) was not supported. Siamsports (Thailand) newspaper said that the home team player should have shown his noble spirit by returning the ball after the Vietnamese team's goalkeeper proactively kicked the ball out of the field.
"Supachok Sarachat did not break any rules, but from a sporting point of view, he should have returned the ball to his opponent. It was clear that the Vietnamese goalkeeper took the initiative to send the ball out of the field. The 2-1 goal did not change the situation much. However, this increased the anger and excitement of the Vietnamese team," commented the Thai newspaper.
On social media, many Thai fans also disagreed with Supachok Sarachat's actions. However, coach Masatada Ishii said it was a "beautiful goal". In fact, this move did not violate the rules but went against the spirit of sportsmanship. The Thai team was criticized even more when they refused to follow the referee's suggestion to "return" a goal to the Vietnamese team.
Siamsports also said that referee Ko Hyung-jin was biased towards the Vietnamese team in this match. The evidence they gave was that the statistics of the number of fouls committed by the Vietnamese team was only 4, while Thailand had 12 fouls.
"The referee was not up to standard," Siamsports said. The newspaper said that Pham Tuan Hai - the player who scored the opening goal - should have been sent off for his foul right from the start of the match. Siamsports also said that the referee and VAR deliberately overlooked the Vietnamese team's mistakes in two other key moments.
Further analyzing the reasons for the Thai team's defeat, Siamsports newspaper assessed that coach Masatada Ishii made many mistakes. The Japanese coach was criticized for poor improvisation and unreasonable substitutions. In addition, Siamsports said that coach Ishii still could not overcome the weakness in the defense.
"It seems that coach Masatada Ishii was too worried about Xuan Son so he used more than 1 player to mark this striker. That led to the opening goal of the Vietnamese team.
In the return match, Xuan Son was only on the field for 32 minutes. The Thai defense was still in chaos. This will be a big problem that Ishii must overcome. If the Thai defense remains loose like this, Vietnam and Indonesia will soon surpass each other on the FIFA rankings," commented the Thai newspaper.
PV (synthesis)