Thai players win soccer title, Indonesia gets bronze

BANDAR SERI BEGAWAN (JP): Thailand showed its class in the soccer competition at the 20th Southeast Asian (SEA) Games with a 2-0 win over Vietnam in the final on Saturday.

The victory earned the Thais their fourth gold medal in a row, confirming its status as the strongest soccer power in the region. There were hopes that Vietnam could repeat its win over the same opponent in the Tiger Cup final last year.

Earlier in the day, Indonesia won a consolation bronze medal when it beat Singapore 4-2 on penalties. The match was deadlocked after both failed to score after 90 minutes of regular time plus 30 minutes of extra time.

Indonesia played a lackluster game, with back wingers Agung Setyabudi and Andrian Mardiansyah failing to feed the ball accurately to strikers Rocky E. Puttiray and Bambang Pamungkas.

Bambang appeared reluctant in developing the attack to the Singaporean defense. But veteran Rocky still had enough energy and motivation to break through the Singaporean defense line.

Ali Sunan, who operated in the midfield, did not give new blood to his striking partners as he used to. Coach Bernhard Schumm set striker Widodo C. Putro in to replace Ali in the second half, but the substitution did not bear fruit.

Captain Bima Sakti, midfielder Haryanto Prasetyo, defender Sugiyantoro and Widodo netted the ball in the penalty shoot-out.

Singapore scored through strikers Zulkarnaen Zainal and Mohd. Azhar Salleh, but saw Indonesian goalkeeper Hendro Kartika deny penalty kicks by Mohd. Nazri Nasir and Mohd. Rafi Mohd. Ali.

Schumm praised the overall match, despite the disappointing performance.

"Every penalty was very good and the goalkeeper did tremendously to save his net from the penalty shots. We're happy to go home to Indonesia with a medal," he said in a media briefing after the match.

He said the team had put its bitter loss in the semifinal behind them in Saturday's match.

"It's a kind of small final. The most difficult thing I did was motivate the disappointed players within 48 hours before the match against Singapore. I told them that we have lost one time in a good game and we don't want to lose for the second time," he said.

The German coach also dismissed the request from soccer observers to resign following the team's failure to get to the final, saying that he would continue training the national team for the preliminary round for the Asian Cup next year.

"I will be here to prepare the pre-Olympic team and train the national team for the SEA Games and the Asian Cup. There's nothing more to discuss about," he said.

Meanwhile, Singapore team coach Vincent Subramaniam expressed his disappointment with the result.

"We were expecting to get the bronze, but we failed. I'm quite disappointed," he said. (ivy)