Easy Victory
After losing 2-1 against Australia in their last Asian World Cup Qualifying match, Thailand bounced back quickly with an easy win against an outmatched Oman squad. The home victory in Bangkok, in the 3rd round of the qualifying stages, definitely keeps Thailand’s hopes alive of making it to Brazil for the 2014 WC.
Sompong and Teerasil Strike Minutes Apart
After half-an-hour of goalless action, Sompong Soleb and Terrasil Dangda both scored in the 35th and 41st minutes, respectively. The goals blew the game open, as Oman was unable to recover from the two-goal deficit. Even worse, although Oman kept Thailand out of the back of the net in the second half, they only made matters worse by scoring an own goal late into the game to make the score 3 to nil.
Standings
Thailand now sits with 3 points in the group, while Oman has just 1 point out of a possible 6 points. Thailand will next host Saudia Arabia in a match on October 11 that may produce the second team to make it out of the group, alongside Australia, with the final qualifying stage of the Asian region as the reward.
Australia took out the Saudis on Tuesday by a score line of 3-1, to give them a full 6 points out of 6 after two games. The Saudis sit at the bottom of the table alongside Oman, with 1 point as well. The two sides drew with one another in their first matches of the qualifying stage.
True Chance for WC 2014?
The 120th-ranked Thai team now has a very good shot of making it to the final group stage of Asian 2014 WC qualifying if they can just get a result against Saudia Arabia. That said, it will be difficult for the to eclipse the giants of the region to make it into the WC. South Korea, Japan, and Australia are again the clear favorites to book trips to Brazil.
If Thailand can grab a convincing victory against Saudia Arabia, it will do much for their confidence and team morale as they move forward in WC qualifying and face much tougher opponents.
