Chappuis: Bad free-kick led to my goal
It might sound funny, but Charyl Chappuis believes a bad free-kick allowed him to score a crucial away goal for Thailand against Malaysia during the Suzuki Cup final.
No, the midfielder is not referring to the excellent set-piece taken by teammate Sarach Yooyen, which forced a splendid save out of Tigers goalkeeper Farizal Marlian but led to Chappuis tapping in the rebound.
Instead, Chappuis was talking about an earlier free-kick which he botched and saw him relieved of his set-piece duties, thus allowing him to be in the right place at the right time to score.
The Swiss-born 22-year-old said: "Normally, I will shoot the free-kicks but about 20 minutes before our goal, I took a free-kick and it went very far away.
"I don't know what it was, maybe instinct for that goal. Because normally I never stand there but this time I just happened to be in the right place at the right time."
Chappuis' strike made it 3-1 the Bukit Jalil Stadium before teammate Chanathip Songkrasin's splendid strike for Thailand's second to ensure the title at 4-3 on aggregate.
Bigger than U-17 World Cup win
While he won the 2009 Fifa Under-17 World Cup with Switzerland, Thailand's record-equalling fourth Suzuki Cup title weighs much heavier for Chappuis.
He said: "This is one of the bigger wins of my career.
"It’s different from the FIFA U-17s when I was a defender because while I played in every game then, I was not so much in the focus like I am now.
"Now I score goals and I am in the senior team and people know me so this is maybe the bigger one."
Source: AFF Suzuki Cup official website
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