AFF Women’s Futsal Championship: Philippines draws with Myanmar; Thailand pips unlucky Indonesia

The 2024 AFF Women’s Futsal Championship opened with two pulsating matches that
had the Philsports Arena crowd hollering and screaming along to the tension.
The Philippine team came back from behind to draw with Myanmar, 2-2, in the main
game while Thailand squeaked past hard-fighting Indonesia, 1-nil.
Isabela Bandoja, captain of the Philippine team, opened the scoring with a clever 1v1
move that ditched her defender then blasted it past Burmese goalkeeper Chaw Sandi
Aung after 12 minutes of play.
Myanmar leveled early in the second half that somewhat deflated the home side. With
the momentum having shifted, Myanmar was poised to break the hearts of the
thousands of Filipino fans in attendance when defender Catherine Graversen was
whistled for a handball.
Philippine coach Vic Hermans sent in back-up goalkeeper Samantha Hughes in place of
starter Mykaella Abeto against Yun Mi Mi Lwin and the former save the spot kick. The
rebound however went straight to the path of the matter who was quick to pounce and
blast the ball in; 2-1 Myanmar.
Forty-six seconds later, Graversen atoned for the handball as she sent a well-placed
pass from the outside that found Agot Danton who fired past Aung for the equalizer.
Finding a new gear, the Philippines went for the match winner with time running out, but
Graversen missed a penalty of her own and her last gasp volley from the outside sailed
over the crossbar for the 2-2 draw.
Following the match, Hermans pronounced himself with the result and the
corresponding point.
“I think our team showed character by coming back and even nearly winning the match,”
said Hermans who came on board in 2022. “This is a good experience for all, and it is
important to come away with confidence and knowing we had a chance to win the
game. That is good leading up to tomorrow (November 17) in our game against
Thailand.”
Thailand on the other hand struggled to break Indonesia’s tightly packed zone and the
netminding of Sasiprapha Suksen especially in the first 90 seconds of the second half
where the former fired six shots.
The diagonal passing and constant cutting of Thailand saw them immediately take
control of the match. However, Sasiprapha and the brilliant defending of team captain
Novita Piranti denied the sixth-ranked team in the world scoring opportunities.

For the most part, Indonesia played direct as they struggled to get past Thailand’s
defense at the halfcourt line.
And yet, Novita was also remarkable on offense as she sprayed passes to teammates
to keep Thailand’s defense honest.
In fact, Indonesia had a golden opportunity to win the match when Thailand’s Jenjira
Bubpha was shown the red card by Japanese referee Mari Yamamoto after the former
brought down from behind Ikeu Rosita.
The Indonesians were not able to take advantage of the two-minute advantage where
Thailand was down one player.
With under five minutes to play, Thailand caught a break when Darika Peanpailun’s shot
took a deflection off Novita’s block and dropped inside Indonesia’s net.
Underscored Thai coach Surapong Plyouwong after the hard-fought 1-nil triumph, “This
is not the Indonesian team we played in the NSDF Women’s Futsal Championships that
was held last September in Bangkok. They were very good.”
The Philippines takes on Thailand in the main game tonight, 7pm at the Philsports
Arena while Vietnam makes its tournament debut against Myanmar at 4pm.

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TEAM STANDINGS

TEAM
MP
W
D
L
GF
GA
GD
PTS
VIETNAM
5
4
0
1
0
0
+13
12
THAILAND
5
4
0
2
0
0
+9
12
INDONESIA
5
1
0
2
0
0
+1
3
MYANMAR
5
0
1
3
0
0
-11
1
PHILIPPINES
4
0
1
2
0
0
-12
1