Young Elephants earn title shot

Weerathep Pomphan’s extra-time goal yesterday gave Thailand a 1-0 victory over Indonesia and a place in the men’s football final of the SEA Games in Vietnam.

The Muang Thong United midfielder struck in the 95th minute after a goalless stalemate at full time to prevent a spirited Indonesian side from taking the keenly contested semi-final to a penalty shoot-out.

The Young Elephants will play the winners of last night’s second semifinal between hosts Vietnam or Malaysia. The title match will be played on Sunday at My Dinh Stadium in Hanoi.

The match took an ugly turn towards the end as four players — one Thai and three Indonesians — were handed red cards by the match referee.

The Indonesians went on the attack from the word go and saw Marc Anthony Klok’s free-kick miss the target by a whisker early in the match.

As the Thais were pinned to their own half in the beginning, the Indonesians had another opportunity but this time it was Egy Maulana’s turn to fire his attempt wide.

Ricky Kambuaya then came dangerously close to the goal before his shot was cleared by a Thai defender.

The Thais’ first real move came in the 23rd minute when a long shot from Ben Davis forced Indonesian goalkeeper Ernando Ari Sutaryadi into action.

The second half saw the Indonesians make some good counter-attacking moves with Egy once again missing his shot from inside the box.

During the last 15 minutes of the match, Indonesia pressured the Thai side and got a chance through Rachmat Irianto whose shot was cleared by goalkeeper Kawin Thamsatchanan.

Kawin was again at his best when he denied Egy towards the end of the match.

The Thais were also denied at the other end by Indonesian goalkeeper Ernando who saved a sizzling shot from Ekanit Panya.