Fadhil Yunus
Brunei Darussalam under-19 national team fell to a 2-0 defeat to Thailand in their penultimate Group ‘A’ game of the Asean Football Federation (AFF) Under-19 Boys’ Championship at the Patriot Candrabhanga in Bekasi, Indonesia yesterday.
The match was scoreless for most of the first half until Kroekphon Arbram broke the deadlock on the brink of halftime.
The Young Wasps made it a low scoring affair despite substitute Winai Aimoat coming off the bench to double his side’s lead in the hour mark.
The result mean that Brunei currently sit bottom of the table after crashing to a fourth successive defeat in the regional meet.
The under-19 national team began their group stage with a 7-0 defeat to Myanmar before they endured another heavy loss by the same scoreline against hosts Indonesia.
National Under-19 Coach Faizalani bin Abdul Ghani’s young charges shipped four goals to Vietnam in their third group match.
Nevertheless, the young Bruneians put up a much closer fight against the much-fancied Thais.
The Young Wasps, who are yet to register a single goal and still in search of victory, will conclude their campaign against the Philippines tomorrow at the Patriot Candrabhanga Stadium.
The Brunei under-19 team will hope to replicate a similar result during their previous AFF meeting in 2017 when they won 3-2 following goals from Mateen, Asyraffahmi and Wadud.
Meanwhile in the other group match, Vietnam beat Myanmar 3-1, sealing the latter’s elimination from the competition.
