Thai newspaper points out 5 reasons for defeat against Vietnam

The problem is in the defense.According to Siam SportCoach Masatada Ishii was too concerned about Nguyen Xuan Son, leading to the arrangement of many players to mark him, unintentionally creating space for Pham Tuan Hai to open the score in the 4th minute for Vietnam.

The paper also blamed Suphanan Bureerat for leaving his position and leaving a gap when Vietnam equalised 2-2. Thailand's 12-goal haul in the ASEAN Cup, their worst defensive record in the tournament's history, was also dissected. "The fact that Son played only 32 minutes and left the Thai defence in disarray is a big problem for coach Ishii," the paper added. "If the defence continues to be sloppy, Thailand could be overtaken by both Vietnam and Indonesia in the FIFA rankings in the near future."

The goal increased the score to 2-1 in the 64th minute.The incident started when goalkeeper Nguyen Dinh Trieu threw the ball out of bounds when he saw his teammate Nguyen Hoang Duc was in pain. Then, instead of returning the ball to Vietnam, Supachok scored a long-range goal for Thailand.

According toSiam Sport, Supachok did not break the rules but should have returned the ball considering the spirit of sportsmanship. "On the surface, the goal to make it 2-1 seems insignificant, because the referee recognized it. But on the other hand, it caused anger and stimulated Vietnam to play better, leading to two goals conceded at the end of the second half," the newspaper wrote.

Weerathep's red card.Besides Supachok's controversial goal, Weerathep receiving a second yellow card in the 74th minute also changed the game's outcome.

Siam SportThe commentary said that in a football tournament with relatively tight competition and in a final, losing a man almost immediately closed the door to victory, because the remaining players were also exhausted after many days of hard work. "That red card was like giving the advantage to Vietnam. It was certainly an expensive lesson for Weerathep," the commentary said.

The referee is not qualified.Thai newspapers said that Korean referee Ko Hyung-jin did not control the match well, as evidenced by Thailand being penalized 11 times, while Vietnam was only penalized 3 times.

Three other suspicions were also raised by this newspaper: Tuan Hai was only given a yellow card despite a two-footed tackle on Jonathan Khemdee; ignoring a Vietnamese player's foul on Supachok, leading to Weerathep reacting and receiving a second yellow card; VAR referee Choi Hyun-chae ignored the situation where Suphanan was blocked by a Vietnamese defender in the penalty area without touching the ball.

Bad substitution.Final,Siam Sportbelieves that coach Ishii's substitutions were inaccurate throughout the tournament, especially in yesterday's match at Rajamangala.

Accordingly, Ben Davis, the player who equalized 1-1 and caused a lot of problems for Vietnam, had to leave the field in extra time; Seksan Ratree played all eight matches but often made bad passes, handled the ball poorly and did not create any positive changes; and Worachit Kanitsribumphen, the player who had useful through balls and proved his ability to change the game, did not have many opportunities to play.

The 3-5 defeat to Vietnam shattered Thailand's dream of winning the ASEAN Cup (formerly AFF Cup and Tiger Cup) for the third consecutive time.

This is also the first time in history that they have lost both finals of a Southeast Asian championship. In contrast, Vietnam became the first Southeast Asian team to win the final twice on Thailand's home turf (the first time was in 2008 under Henrique Calisto).