A day after the shocking 2-3 defeat to Vietnam U22 in the SEA Games 33 men's football final, Dr. Chanwit Pholcheewin, Vice President of the Football Association (FA) of Thailand, affirmed that there would be no dismissal notice for coach Thawatchai Damrong-Ongtrakul.
"Mr. Thawatchai will definitely remain the head coach of the Thailand U23 team and will be aiming for the 2026 AFC U23 Championship in Saudi Arabia," Vice President Chanwit said, explaining that with limited time left to prepare for the tournament, a change on the coaching bench is unnecessary.
Furthermore, the Thai FA also highly appreciates the consistent performance of the U22 Thai team under coach Thawatchai, and the defeat in the SEA Games 33 final was partly due to affected physical condition, something the Thai FA is concerned will happen again at the 2026 U23 Asian Championship. "It is possible that the U23 Thai team will be missing some key players because they have to play for their respective clubs," he said.
Meanwhile, the Chairwoman of the Thai FA, Madam Pang Nualphan Lamsam, declined all interview requests after the defeat at Rajamangala. Instead, according to TNews, she simply expressed her feelings with a single word: "Too painful." Later, Madam Pang posted a video on social media congratulating the Vietnam Football Federation on their missed opportunity to win the SEA Games 2025 gold medal.
Currently, Thai media is very pessimistic about the prospects of ending their SEA Games gold medal drought. According to their calculations, the 34th SEA Games, to be held in Malaysia, will be extremely difficult due to numerous competitors.
"Winning a gold medal at the 2027 Games in Malaysia seems far-fetched at this point, and if we don't learn from our repeated failures, in two years we could face even greater pain," wrote the Standard.
Source: https://tienphong.vn/hau-that-bai-phan-ung-cua-madam-pang-va-chiec-ghe-cua-hlv-u22-thai-lan-post1806203.tpo
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