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Chanvit set to leave Thailand
BANGKOK - Thailand's disappointment at finishing runners-up to Singapore in the final of the Asean Football Championship has been compounded by the likelihood that head coach Chanvit Polchovin will leave the 2007 AFC Asian Cup co-hosts.
The former Asian Coach of the Year – who steered Thai Farmers Bank to back-to-back Asian Club Championship titles in the mid-Nineties – has been approached by Vietnamese league side Dong Thap and Sunday’s defeat at the hands of the Singaporeans may be his last in charge of the national side.
"I have yet to see the final contract and there may be some small things that I might not agree with,” Chanvit said after a 1-1 draw in Bangkok handed Singapore a 3-2 aggregate win. “But if the contract looks good, I will go.”
"I have yet to see the final contract and there may be some small things that I might not agree with,” Chanvit said after a 1-1 draw in Bangkok handed Singapore a 3-2 aggregate win. “But if the contract looks good, I will go.”
Chanvit took over as national team coach in early 2005 from Germany’s Sigfried Held and, should he leave for Vietnam the Thais would be looking for a replacement with less than six months to go before the finals of the AFC Asian Cup
Meanwhile Singapore coach Radojko Avramovic hailed the stunning strike from substitute Khairul Amri which earned the Lions the draw and the trophy as well as taking the Serb's unbeaten run in the tournament to 15 matches.
"Amri scored a beautiful goal," Avramovic said of the swerving strike. “The goal was one of the best I have seen and one deserving to win the final of a championship."
The Young Lions forward, who came on for Nigeria-born winger Itimi Dickson 10 minutes into the second half, levelled the absorbing match on the night, cancelling out a 37th minute goal from Pipat Thonkanya which saw the Thais make the aggregate score 2-2 after losing 2-1 in the first leg in Singapore.
"The finalists were the two best teams in South East Asia and I think it was a very good game," continued Avramovic. "In the first half the Thais were really trying to make a difference and pushed players forward trying to win the game.
"We coped well until they scored and then we struggled, although we came out in the second half looking for the goal and missed a few opportunities."
Despite leading Singapore to their second successive Asean Football Championship title - the island republic's third in total following victory in 1998 - Avramovic felt the task could have been completed less stressfully had Indonesian referee Jimmy Napitupulu not ruled out an eighth minute effort from Shahril Ishak.
"We had an early goal disallowed and it was 100 per cent not offside," said the former Notts County keeper, who was full of praise after his team insured the trophy returned to the Lion city.
"I have to congratulate all the boys as they played fantastic," he said.
"We needed to score a goal tonight and we did it. I said to the players before the competition that it is a lot harder to keep the title than to win it but we did it."
