Poor defense According to Siam Sport, it seems that coach Masatada Ishii paid too much attention to Nguyen Xuan Son when arranging more than one player to follow this striker.
This caused the Thai defense to forget about other dangers on the Vietnamese team's attack, typically Pham Tuan Hai - the owner of the opening goal of the match.
In the situation of Vietnam equalizing 2-2, the defensive mistake appeared once again when Suphanan Burirat lacked observation, left his position and left a huge gap before Tuan Hai received the ball. However, the "War Elephants" marking Xuan Son also revealed loopholes, when the 27-year-old striker still comfortably handled the ball and caused many dangerous situations before having to leave the field due to injury.
According to statistics, this is the worst defense in the history of the Thai team when it conceded 12 goals at the ASEAN Cup 2024. Previously, the number of goals conceded by the "War Elephants" had never reached 9 goals.
Controversial goal
Siam Sport admitted that Supachok Sarachat should not have scored the goal that increased the score to 2-1 even though it was a beautiful masterpiece. According to the rules, this situation was still recognized by the referee as a goal. However, Supachok should have shown the spirit of fair-play and returned the ball to the Vietnam team. Because before that, Dinh Trieu had proactively kicked the ball to the sideline when he discovered that a player was injured.
The referee could not help but recognize the goal because it was legal, but this controversial goal touched the pride of the Vietnamese team. That was the consequence that in the following minutes, the "Golden Star Warriors" played more and more passionately and energetically, leaving the opponent no time to react.
Weerathep's disastrous red card was the turning point
In addition to Supachok's controversial goal, another thing that completely changed the game was Weerathep Pomphan's red card in the 74th minute. Siam Sport newspaper assessed that Weerathep's pulling of Nguyen Quang Hai's shirt was a hasty and uncontrolled action, after witnessing Supachok being fouled by the Vietnamese team.
This led to the Thai team playing with only 10 players on the field and being at a disadvantage to their opponents in both numbers and physical strength. Siam Sport newspaper assessed that this turning point almost closed the door to victory for the home team and gave the championship trophy to their opponents.
Referee error
Siam Sport newspaper criticized the main referee team for not managing the match well, when they ignored a series of situations where the Thai team enjoyed an advantage.
First was the two-footed tackle by Tuan Hai on Jonathan Khemdee in the 3rd minute. According to Thailand's leading sports newspaper, this was a dangerous foul and the Vietnamese striker deserved to be sent off. If the referee had been more harsh, perhaps the Thai team would not have conceded a goal a few minutes later by Tuan Hai.
In the following minutes, the referee immediately gave Weerathep a red card, but ignored the previous foul by a Vietnamese player on Supachok. The referee should have blown the whistle when Supachok was fouled. Finally, the referee robbed the Thai team of a penalty in the 85th minute, when Pham Xuan Manh failed to clear the ball, leading to Suphanan being blocked in the penalty area. The main referee Ko Hyung Jin did not directly watch VAR but only listened to the announcement from the VAR room.
Wrong decision to make a substitution
One of the problems for coach Masatada Ishii at the 2024 ASEAN Cup is the possibility of being slow in making substitution decisions. Benjamin Davis, who was playing well and opened the score, was taken off at a crucial moment.
Midfielder Seksan Ratree played all 8 matches but left a rather weak impression. Even in the second leg of the final, Seksan made many bad passes and lost the ball, as well as not creating any notable opportunities. Meanwhile, Worachit Kanitsribamphen - a player with the ability to deploy the ball from a distance and has proven himself - had too few opportunities to play.
