Thais’ AFF Cup trophy smashes Vietnam's hope for 3rd title

Thailand captain Theerathon Bunmathan on Monday dashed Vietnam’s dream to secure the Asean championship’s trophy, helping the regional football powerhouse win the tourney for the seventh time.

Vietnam, the 2018 winners, started the AFF Cup second-leg final at the Thammasat Stadium not far from Bangkok with disadvantages due to their 2-2 draw with Thailand in the first-leg match in Hanoi on Friday.

At Thammasat, the hosts showed they were some distance ahead of the Golden Star Warriors as Bunmathan fired with a long-range strike 25 minutes into the game.

This meant Vietnam needed two goals to win to be able to say goodbye to head coach Park Hang-seo with a trophy. The Korean tactician took over in September 2017, and led the Golden Stars to the semi-finals of the 2018 Asian Games and winning the AFF Cup later the same year.

Thailand coach Alexandre Polking let Bunmathan be the playmaker, enabling the captain to feed his teammates with scoring opportunities, which were in turn denied by Vietnam keeper Dang Van Lam.

All efforts from Park’s side to equalize were stopped by Thailand’s well-organized defense system and the game wrapped up with one goal in favor of the hosts. The defending champions won 3-2 on aggregate. Strikers Nguyen Tien Linh of Vietnam and Teerasil Dangda of Thailand shared the top-scorer position with six goals each.

Coach Park is much loved by Vietnamese fans. After Vietnam secured the 2018 AFF Cup trophy, their second regional title, his team in 2019 progressed to the quarter-finals of the Asian Cup, losing 1-0 to four-times champions Japan, a powerhouse in Asia. The Golden Stars also reached the final phase of Asia’s World Cup preliminaries for the first time during qualifiers for Qatar 2022.

The Korean tactician’s contract for the Vietnamese national squad will complete at the end of this January. Park's impact has also made him lauded at home as South Korea’s President Yoon Suk-yeol has awarded him the Heungin Medal for strongly promoting friendship between Korea and Vietnam.

Park served as an assistant to South Korea coach Guus Hiddink when the team reached the 2002 FIFA World Cup semi-finals. His arrival in Vietnam in 2017 coincided with a golden generation of Vietnamese football.