Following Park Hang-seo 안전놀이터 (Vietnam) and Shin Tae-yong (Indonesia) in Southeast Asian football, even ‘Pangon Kim Magic’ hit hard.
In the first leg of the semi-finals of the 2022 Asian Football Federation (AFF) Mitsubishi Electric Cup, Malaysia, led by coach Kim Pan-gon, defeated defending champion Thailand.
Malaysia, led by coach Kim, defeated Thailand 1-0 in the first leg of the semifinals held at the Bukit Jalil National Stadium in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia on the 7th at 9:30 pm (Korean time).
In the semi-finals held in a home-and-away format, they took a step closer to advancing to the finals by winning the first game.
Thailand is the defending champion and the country with the most wins (six). Again, he is considered a strong contender for the championship. Thailand advanced to the semifinals by finishing in Group A, while Malaysia advanced to Group B by finishing in second place.
There were many evaluations that Thailand was one step ahead in terms of objective power, but Malaysia caught a big fish with a strong concentration that did not miss the opportunity.
In the 11th minute of the game, Faisal Harim broke the Thai goal net with a non-stop shot from a ball thrown over his head by a teammate. Afterwards, Thailand counterattacked fiercely, but Malaysia’s defense was solid.
Rather, in the 10th minute of the second half, Dominic Tan scored an additional goal with a header from a free kick set piece. However, the goal was canceled due to the referee’s decision that there had been a foul play during the contest.
The video review (VAR) system was not operated in this competition. Malaysia strongly protested, saying it was normal play and scoring, but it was not accepted.
Coach Pangon Kim served as the head of the Korea Football Association’s National Team Power Reinforcement Committee and took over as Malaysia coach in January of last year. He is showing tangible results in his first year, and is evaluated as continuing the ‘heyday of Korean coaches in Southeast Asian football’.
Malaysia and Thailand will play the second leg in Thailand on the 10th.
If Malaysia advances to the final, a final match between Korean coaches will be held. On the other side, coach Park Hang-seo’s Vietnam and Shin Tae-yong’s Indonesia are facing each other. The first leg was tied 0-0.