Thursday, 30 October 2014

Malaysia Inaugural King of the Beach

Malaysia emerged as the inaugural champions of the AFF Beach Soccer Championship held at the Teluk Chempedak Beach, Kuantan today after beating Vietnam 6-4 in the final.



Thailand took third place after beating Laos 4-1 in their playoff match.

Malaysia, with players from Terengganu making the core of the squad finished second in Group B behind the Laotians with two wins over Myanmar and the Phillipines to qualify for the semi-finals.

With Felda the main sponsor for the event, they were also represented by a team but did not make it out from their group, finishing bottom after losing all their matches.

Malaysia beat Group A winners, Thailand 3-2 in a pulsating encounter with the winner coming in extra time after both sides tied at 2-2 at the end of normal time.

In the other semi-final, Laos failed to hold on to a two goal lead against Vietnam and succumbed to a 3-2 loss.

The final played before a strong crowd saw Malaysia dominated and raced to a three goal lead through a brace from Mohamad Zaharim and Mohammad Fakhrullah before Bui Tran Tuan Ahn replied for Myanmar.

Zaharim completed his hattrick with his next strike but Tran Vihn Phuong reduced the deficit again before Mohamad Norazman restored Malaysia three goal lead almost immediately.

Malaysia seemed to take their foot off the gas after this and it allowed Vietnam to chase the game and made it 5-4 with Tuan Ahn becoming another player to complete a hattrick.

Mohamad Riduwan then put some cushion with another goal for Malaysia.

However they suffered a major blow when Norazman was given his marching order towards the end of the match but Vietnam could not take advantage and Malaysia were crowned the first champions of AFF Beach Soccer Championship.

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