Anh Đức

ASEAN football delivered yet another banging final last Wednesday, just five months after the ASEAN Championship Final. And guess who the main actors were again?

The almost never-ending saga between Việt Nam and Thailand continued at club level, and it took both legs, extra time and penalties to settle the score between Công An Hà Nội FC (CAHN) and Buriram United to crown the first ASEAN Club Champion after the competition's twenty-year hiatus.

It is evident that the need for a club competition in ASEAN is long overdue. As the AFC Champions League changes format and the AFC Cup now becomes the AFC Champions League Two, with the involvement of powerhouses from Asia's Big Five football nations (Australia, South Korea, Japan, Saudi Arabia and Iran), chances for ASEAN clubs to achieve international glory became slimmer.

The ASEAN Club Championship initiative was then revisited after its demise in 2005. The competition should have been held earlier in 2022, had it not been for the pandemic. This season alone garnered criticism of fixture congestion, but in the end, it has delivered what is perhaps vital to fans: excitement.

Going back to the two-legged final between CAHN and Buriram, despite pundits putting the Thai team slightly ahead as the favourites, it was clear from the first leg in Hà Nội that neither team was coming out of this tie with the upper hand.

CAHN surprisingly went ahead 2-1 in the first half at home and almost got the game in the bag had it not been for a late equaliser in the 78th minute by Peter Zulj. The statistics in the game also tell the same story: a two per cent difference in possession, and almost the same amount of shots were taken by the two teams. As there was no away goals rule enforced, the tie was reset before going into the second leg at Buriram.

In the fully packed Thunder Castle Stadium in Thailand, once again many thought that with the home advantage, the cup was certain to stay at Buriram. However, both the torrential rain and the relentless willpower from CAHN challenged that idea.

Việt Nam's representative went 2-0 in front of an ironically shocked crowd in the Thunder Castle, and held on to that advantage for 83 minutes. A struggling Buriram, who were repeatedly denied time and time again by the heroics of Filip Nguyễn, surprisingly found their way back with a Peter Zulj goal.

As the rain pours down, both teams are tested to their limits, and the four minutes added on is stretched three minutes further. In the last moment of the match, a free kick was given outside the penalty area to Buriram. With the last kick of the game, Lucas Crispin sent the ball into the back of Filip's net, sent Buriram and CAHN into extra time, and sent 32,000 fans in the Thunder Castle roaring.

The game was turned on its head again in extra time as CAHN was running against both the mental and the physical momentum. The 3-2 goal by Guilherme Bissoli just before the end of the first period could have been the nail in the coffin, but CAHN again proved the doubters wrong by refusing to back down.

Just three minutes from full time, and after a hilarious situation that led to a red card for a Buriram coaching staff member, a corner was whipped in and found Alan Grafite, who rose above all others to silence the crowd in Buriram again.

And thus, the final of the first return edition had to be settled on penalties, where Buriram's Chatchai Budprom became the hero with three saves to keep the cup in Thailand.

It was joyous for the Thai fans, bitter for the Vietnamese, but for the neutral supporters who had the chance to witness this cup tie, there would be no better advertisement for ASEAN football than this. VNS