AFF Women's Futsal Championship: Hermans-Plyouwong is SEA’s version of Guardiola-Arteta

MANILA, Philippines — The five coaches leading their respective nations in the AFF Women’s Futsal Championship 2024 — Indonesia’s Arif Kurniawan, Myanmar’s Htay Myint, Thailand’s Surapong Plyouwong, Vietnam’s Nguyen Dinh Hoang and the Philippines' Vic Hermans — all paid respect to each other and their respective capabilities during the pre-tournament press conference at the Marco Polo Hotel on Friday, November 15.

The five-nation tourney serves a tantalizing serving of match-ups — Thailand versus Vietnam (the latter defeated the former on home soil in the NSDF Futsal Championship last year, and this one — the Philippines versus Thailand.

During the 2012 Asean Futsal Championship, Thailand, already a regional powerhouse, bagged the gold medal. That spurred them to four more consecutive trophies. 

While Thailand has dominated that competition, there is a backstory to that. 

Thailand won the first seven stagings of that tournament while crushing the competition by 47 goals to the competition’s mere eight goals.

However, in 2010, the wheels fell off with Indonesia defeating Malaysia for the gold. Vietnam finished third, and the Philippines fourth.

Thailand wondered if their time of dominance had come to an end. Unfortunately for them, the 2011 edition was cancelled.

They returned in 2012 with Hermans as the head coach and Plyouwong as the team captain.

In the group stages, Thailand bamboozled everyone scoring an incredible 73 goals while conceding four goals for a 4-0 group stage record.

In the semifinals, Thailand showed Malaysia who is boss with a 12-1 win. Come the finals, Herman and his boys convincingly defeated Vietnam, 9-4.

Hermans moved on after 2015 while eventually, Plyouwong became the coach; a winning one.

This coming November 17, the Dutch master meets his Thai padawan. It’s the futsal version of Pep Guardiola versus Mikel Arteta.

Guardiola was a senior teammate of Arteta’s with Barcelona and later was an assistant to the former with Man City. Arteta, seen as a protégé to Guardiola, have dueled for the English Premier League championship in the last two seasons.

In front of the media, Plyouwong could only smile as Hermans heaped platitudes on him.

“He’s become a very good coach,” underscored the Philippines boss.

It isn’t only the Philippines that the Thai coach has to watch out for — there are his nation’s nemeses — Indonesia and Vietnam.

“We are proud that we are ranked sixth best in the world by FIFA,” Plyouwong said through an interpreter. “But we do not take anyone for granted.”

And the fireworks and high intensity futsal begins Saturday, November 16, when Indonesia battles Thailand in the opener at 4 p.m., while the host country takes on dangerous Myanmar in the main game at 7 p.m.

The matches, which will be played at the PhilSports Arena, will be livestreamed on the Philippine Football Federations’ Facebook page.