Images from The Nation Thailand/ANN
BANGKOK (The Nation Thailand/ANN): Thailand's national football team manager Nualphan “Madam Pang” Lamsam on Friday apologised to Thai football fans for the national team’s humiliating 8-0 away loss to Georgia, promising no more major defeats for the Thai team.
The outcome of the exhibition Fifa Day football match held at the Mikheil Meskhi Stadium in Tbilisi on Thursday (October 12), was the biggest victory for any Georgian team. Their previous biggest win was a 7-0 thrashing of Armenia in 1997.
For the Thai national team, also known as “War Elephants”, it was their second biggest defeat, after the 9-0 rout by England in the 1956 Olympic football tournament.
After the game, many fans fumed on social media that the loss was a major setback, pointing to management issues that prevented the team from fielding its top-tier players.
In her apology posted on facebook, Nualphan said she accepted all the criticism regarding the management of Thai national team and remarked that some football clubs had refused to send their best players for the match.
“Throughout my 16 years of managing the team, this is the saddest day,” she said. “Like football fans nationwide, I am in tremendous pain seeing our team defeated.”
She vowed to use all criticism as a lesson to make sure that the Thai team does not suffer such a predicament ever again.
She added that exhibition matches with European teams would be a great experience to improve the Thai team in several areas. She pledged to dedicate her abilities to achieve the goal of making the Thai team stronger.
The coach of the national team, Mano Pölking, said in an interview that the team had aspired for a better outcome but faced considerable challenges.
Several players were making their national team debuts, he said, adding that there were many new additions to the squad. Despite the result, he refrained from criticising his players, recognising their wholehearted effort. - The Nation Thailand/ANN
