ASEAN Para Games: Narrow 5-a-side football opening loss for Malaysia

Malaysia began their gold medal defence in five-a-side football with a narrow 2-1 loss to Thailand at the 9th ASEAN Para Games on Monday.

The Thais shocked the host nation when they opened the scoring in the eighth minute through Kittikorn Baodee.

Azuan Abdul Rasiad managed to equalise for Malaysia five minutes before the break, but Baodee struck again for the 2015 silver medal-winning team in the 40th minute to secure the win.

Despite the defeat, national head coach S. Sunny took heart from it and will assess the team's weaknesses before tomorrow's match against Vietnam.

"I feel the technical level of both teams is the same because Malaysia and Thailand have played for a long time," he said.

"Like we could see, they also struggled and slipped on the turf, which was the same as us."

(Picture: KL2017 MASOC)