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| December 19, 2002 | Thursday | Shawwal 14, 1423 |
Thailand, Malaysia win
Thailand 5 Laos 1
A youthful Malaysian side shocked the more experienced Singaporeans with a comprehensive display.
In the opening match, Worawoot Srimaka had Thailand in front after just 50 seconds.
Within 24 minutes Thailand were 3-0 ahead. Captain Kiatisuk Senamuang headed home a cross by Terdsak Chaiman in the seventh minute for the first of his three goals, and Worawoot scored again 18 minutes later.
But just as a blitz looked on for Thailand in the tournament signs of rustiness from their preparation began to appear.
Methodical build ups from the back repeatedly came unstuck due to a mix of tenacious Laotian defence and misdirected crosses.
They were eventually rewarded in the 66th minute when Thai keeper Kittisak Rawangpa was stranded after failing to gather in an inaccurate cross and a scrambling Visay Phaphouvann recovered the ball off the line, turned and blasted it into the back of the net.
That goal had the effect of reigniting Thailand, and Kiatisuk found his direction to score in the 83rd and 90th minute.
Malaysia and Singapore provided non-stop action with the former fully exploited Singapore’s defensive weaknesses.
Akmal Rizal Rakhli tormented the Singapore back four and silenced the partisan crowd of 40,000 in the 29th minute to put Malaysia up 1-0.
The second spell was but three minutes old when Indra Putra burst through the Singapore defence and slipped the ball past goalkeeper Sharil Jantan for the first of his two goals.
He repeated the performance in the 65th minute and Akmal set up Nizaruddin Yusoff in the 68th minute for the fourth goal.—AFP
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