Poor performance of Southeast Asian teams at Asian Cup

N@T• DNUM_AHZABZCABJ 16:45

(Baonghean.vn) - Including the match between Thailand and India, 7 Southeast Asian teams have played 65 matches, won 9, drawn 18, and lost 38. Vietnamese fans hope that coach Park Hang-seo and his team will have their 10th victory for regional football.

Bad past

Thailand is the Southeast Asian team that has participated in the Asian Cup the most times, with 6 times. However, the performance of the Golden Temple team in the continental arena is quite poor. The Thai team has played a total of 20 matches, and if only counting the results in the official 90 minutes of play, Thailand has only had 1 match, drawn 8 and lost 11 matches, scoring 11 goals but conceding 45 goals, with a goal difference of -30.

HLV Rajevac là nhà cầm quân đầu tiên rời giải đấu. Ảnh: Getty
Coach Rajevac is the first coach to leave the tournament. Photo: Getty

Their only win was against Oman, 2-0, in the group stage of the 2007 Asian Cup, when they were co-hosts with Vietnam, Indonesia and Malaysia but ultimately failed to get past the group stage.

In fact, the 1972 Asian Cup was the first tournament that Thailand participated in as the host team. The tournament had only 6 teams divided into 2 groups, and Thailand won third place thanks to a 5-3 penalty shootout win over Cambodia, but they drew 2-2 after 2 regular and extra periods.

Surprisingly, Myanmar was the team with the best performance, they played 4 matches at the Asian Cup, won 2, drew 1 and lost only 1. The 1968 Asian Cup had 5 teams participating and Myanmar reached the final match and lost to host Iran, accepting the runner-up position. This is also the highest ranking of Southeast Asian football in this continental arena.

The Indonesian team also had 2 wins when participating in 4 Asian Cups (from 1996 to 2007) after 12 matches. Of course, they did not pass the group stage, including the 2007 Asian Cup held at home, losing 8 matches and only drawing 2 matches.

Thus, with both Myanmar and Indonesia, Thailand and Vietnam have the opportunity to catch up with the number of 2 wins of these two neighboring countries. Up to now, including the Southern team, we have played 10 matches, won only 1, drawn 2 and lost 7.

Our only win was at My Dinh Stadium on July 8, 2007 against UAE, with goals scored by Quang Thanh and Cong Vinh. In the 2007 Asian Cup, we made it through the group stage but lost 0-2 to Iraq in Bangkok, and had to stop. After 2007, Southeast Asian football has not had any team make it through the group stage of the Asian Cup, a pretty bad record.

Cambodia, Malaysia and Singapore each have 1 win in this tournament. However, while Cambodia and Singapore have only participated in 1 Asian Cup, Malaysia has participated in 3 Asian Cups (1976, 1980 and 2007). Having played a total of 9 matches, Malaysia has lost 5, drawn 3 and as mentioned above has only 1 win.

Except for the 2007 Asian Cup held at home, Thailand and Vietnam have only won 1 match. Since the 1976 Asian Cup, Southeast Asian countries have almost lost when participating in this big playground. There have been only 9 wins in 16 Asian Cups, divided equally between 7 different teams. That is also the reason why Southeast Asian football is considered the "lowland" of world football.

Hard reality

Seeing Thailand lose 1-4 to India, we know that winning at the Asian Cup at this time is not easy at all. India only needed to control 34% of the ball possession, 285 passes (Thailand 532) but had 15 shots, 6 of which were on target, to create 4 goals.

ĐT Ấn Độ đánh bại Thái Lan với tỉ số 4-1. Ảnh: Getty
India defeated Thailand 4-1. Photo: Getty

Some people even said that with this heavy defeat, the 2019 Asian Cup ended for the Thai team, kicking out coach Milovan Rajevac's seat just 7 hours after the match..

The 2019 Asian Cup is a huge playground for Southeast Asian football. Iraq is not an easy team to play against, the honor of Southeast Asian football rests heavily on the shoulders of the Vietnamese players, the 2018 AFF Cup champions.

We must see Thailand's defeat to have more determination in the first match, to win the 10th victory for Southeast Asian football. Thai football has passed its peak, now it is our turn to assert ourselves.

N@T