Manuel Bihr wants new Thailand generation to join past greats in winning ASEAN Championship

BANGKOK -- For the second consecutive ASEAN Championship, record seven-time champions Thailand have an extra-youthful look about them.

The unavailability of a whole host of key senior players -- who were not released by their clubs for international duty -- has meant that the War Elephants are not as formidable as they could have been at the tournament.

But understrength does not necessarily mean weak, especially not in the case of the Thais - who have seemingly-endless factory line of talented prospects who all appear to possess the same poise, technique and skill as generations gone by.

Back in 2024, Thailand's relative inexperience did not prevent them from making it all the way to the final, although -- on that occasion -- they would ultimately fall to Vietnam 5-3 on aggregate.

With young blood like Kakana Khamyok, Seksan Ratree, Teerasak Poeiphimai and Yotsakorn Burapha all rising to the occasion, the War Elephants are into the decider once more and will again face the Vietnamese -- starting with Saturday's first leg at Bangkok's Rajamangala Stadium.

There have been a number of older headers to provide some much-needed experience in the couple of sticky situations the Thais have found themselves in, like captain Sarach Yooyen, fellow midfielder Pokklaw Anan, and centre-backs Manuel Bihr and Pansa Hemviboon.

The German-born Bihr, who is a seasoned campaigner at 32 even though he is only on 29 caps -- largely owing to the fact that he only committed to Thailand in 2017, has previously tasted ASEAN success in the COVID-delayed 2020 edition, which was held a year later.

Since 2014, Thailand have won a staggering four out of six possible regional titles. Bihr has shared a dressing room with many from those teams that have gone on to claim iconic status in Thai football, such as Chanathip Songkrasin, Theerathon Bunmathan, Teerasil Dangda and even Sarach.

Although many of those stars are not around this time, what it provides is an opportunity for the next generation to follow in the footsteps of the luminaries who have walked this same path before them.

"Yeah, we're in the final now," Bihr told ESPN after they sealed their progress despite a 2-1 loss to Singapore in the second leg of the semifinals on Tuesday.

"It doesn't matter who's in the final. We want to win it now.

"We didn't come that far to only come 'that far'.

"We have some players who have done it before. We hope we can get the young guys to join [that group]. It will be the first trophy for them.

"Still, it's a long way to go. We need to focus again, keep working hard, doing the recovery and then focus on the final."

Having won their first five games of the tournament -- all four in the group stage and then a remarkable 3-1 semifinal first-leg win in Singapore despite having only 28% of possession -- Thailand suffered their first blemish in the defeat earlier this week, which happened to be their first against the Lions since 2012.

It was certainly a nervy affair for them as Singapore piled on the pressure late on in search of finding a third goal to force extra-time, although Bihr and his backline ultimately held up to make sure their first-leg heroics would not be in vain.

"Overall, I think we had a really good first match," he recounted. "With the three goals away, we had like a small advantage.

"But still, we saw the match as a 0-0.

"Singapore put [us under] a lot of pressure. They also wanted to go to the final. In the end, one goal was the difference."

The fact that Singapore also had more of the ball even at Rajamangala Stadium would have been a strange experience for the Thais, given they have long been synonymous with a possession-style of play.

The final should make for an enthralling affair given Vietnam also enjoy having plenty of possession, but are equally capable of really dealing damage on the counterattack.

Into the business end of the tournament, Thailand coach Anthony Hudson previously stressed that winning, regardless of how it is achieved, is the only thing that matters.

And Bihr was equally unbothered by Thailand's peculiar lack of control against Singapore, highlighting the tricky situation the team finds itself in due to the timing of the competition.

"We cannot forget that we are still in preseason [based on the club calendar]," Bihr explained.

"It's difficult to build fitness and stuff and, tactic-wise, we had the match in Singapore just three days before. So we're travelling, we need to recover -- we don't have too much time to go into the details.

"We cannot overthink the matches. So the coach has a good sense of how far [into their match readiness] and what we are capable of. He doesn't want to put too much pressure on the players.

"Maybe it doesn't look so nice but, in the end, it's effective."