Before last Saturday’s win in the final of the AFF Suzuki Cup final against Malaysia, the last time Thailand won the tournament the US invasion of Afghanistan had just started, Tiger Woods had won his second consecutive Masters, R Kelly was charged with having sex with a minor and Brazil had won the World Cup in South Korea and Japan. Twelve years is a long time to wait.
But that all changed last Saturday. Thailand’s national team coach Kiatisuk “Zico” Senamuang will take all the plaudits for his team’s success, and rightly so he is also being praised for the way his team played.
Thailand won the first leg of the final 2-0 and surprised a lot of people with their fluid Barcelona-esque, tiki-taka passing. At one point in the game the Thai national team strung together 27 consecutive passes which culminated in Charyl Chappius sending the ball just wide of the post.
But what is tiki-taka? In short, it is a style of possession-based play that involves a lot of short passes and movement off the ball. It forces the opposition team to chase the ball, drawing them into overloading their team on one side of the pitch and leaving the other side vulnerable.
Tiki-taka is synonymous with Pep Guardiola’s reign as Barcelona manager from 2008 to 2012. Barcelona won 14 trophies from the 19 competitions they entered during Guardiola’s reign and he was able to implement his tiki-taka philosophy with players such as Xavi, Andres Iniesta, Cesc Fabregas and Lionel Messi.
The style of play is ideally suited to teams who aren’t that physically strong and have shorter but technically gifted players, as with Team Thailand.
Thailand doesn’t have any players near the quality of Xavi or Messi – die-hard fans might have dubbed one player Chanathip “Messi Jay” Songkrasin – but Kiatisuk made a brave decision before the AFF tournament to use young, hungry, quick, fit players from the U23 team. By discarding the old guard and bringing in technically better, faster players, the Thai team adapted to its new style of play with glorious results.
In the press conference before the second leg of the final, Kiatisuk outlined what he wants from his players, and if his team can carry out his vision then the future could be very bright for Thai football.
“I want to see a beautiful game,” he said before the match. “It will be a big game at Bukit Jalil with a big crowd. We must win to bring the cup back to the Thai people.
“The last match [first leg] was very tough. And plus the traveling, we needed a lot of rest. Two or three days is not enough for both teams. So we have to look at the available players, as for sure we would want to put in the best players.
“I have already forgotten the last match. Our style is attacking style and we need to show to the fans a fantastic game with non-stop action.
“I told the players that I want peak performance in their own position. The result is secondary,” he said.
If anyone can claim to have returned happiness to the people, Kiatisuk is that man.
