Top marks to the Burmese

The victorious Myanmar team with their reward, the BIDC Cup

For the 2nd match running, Thet Naing proved to be the match-winner for Myanmar

Well blow me down, Myanmar did it. They beat Thailand 2-1 after extra time in tonight's MRYUIFTBIDC Cup (aka BIDC Cup) and deserved it, just. At the final whistle, their German coach Gerd Zeise expressed his pride at his young team (14 under-19 and six at U-21) and felt they did enough to win, and who's to argue, as his young team went on a lap of honour, hardly believing themselves that they'd won against the tournament favourites. Thailand simply didn't do enough and allowed themselves to be harried and hustled off the ball by the fleet-footed Myanmar players who broke quickly and adopted a shoot on sight policy throughout the game. On twenty minutes, the Burmese youngsters went close three times, posting a warning to the Thai team. But it was the Thai's who drew first blood five minutes before the break when Pakorn Parmpak's inswinging free-kick looked to have found the boot of Wittaya Moonwong though the goal was later awarded to Parmpak himself. Not to be outdone, the Myanmar team repeated the feat, when Ye Ko Oo unleashed a free-kick that travelled all the way through the Thai defence and found Zaw Lin in space at the far post and his touch was true to level the scores three minutes before the interval. In the second period the best opportunities fell to Thailand but Parmpak and then Thitiphan Puangjan both failed to take advantage, and so the game went into extra time. Two more Parmpak chances went begging, one of them hitting the foot of the post, before Myanmar sent their supporters into raptures two minutes into the second half of extra time. A sweet and swift passing move saw Nay Lin Tun send over an inviting low cross which Thet Naing tapped in and went off like a rocket to celebrate. Despite a series of Thailand free-kicks that failed to find the target, the Myanmar skipper David Htan smacked a 25 yard free-kick against the cross-bar and that was it, as the Myanmar team celebrated their unexpected success with hugs and flag-waving, collecting the BIDC Cup (and $20,000) and earned the respect from everyone who watched this tournament. Parmpak picked up the golden boot award but will be kicking himself that he didn't make more of a difference in the final when he had the opportunities.

Myanmar were out to prove a point against their higher-rated opponents

Thailand went into the match as hot favourites, and believed it themselves

Golden Boot award winner with 5 goals, Thailand's Pakorn Parmpak

The Myanmar section of the crowd that kept up the noise level throughout the game

Winning coach Gerd Zeise (left) with FFC President Sao Sokha after the presentations