B.Bang Pakong did not wait for the return leg to start the argument. After Thailand lost 0-2 to Vietnam in the first leg of the ASEAN Cup 2026 final on August 22, the Thai football analyst said HLV Anthony Hudson was not as talented as Kim Sang Sik and called for Kiatisak Senamuang to come back and lead the Voi chiến.
That criticism lands now because Thailand have already been pushed into a corner before the second meeting, which is set for 20:00 on August 26 at Mỹ Đình. The defeat at Rajamangala came on home soil, and B.Bang Pakong argued that Hudson’s side had already played four matches at the tournament at home, so the team should have been far more settled than it looked.
He did not soften the assessment. In his view, the only part of the match that Thailand handled reasonably well was the first half against Vietnam. After that, he said, the team collapsed completely in the second half. He described the rest of the run, including that second half, as a failure and said Thailand need a new coach. If no suitable option can be found, he added, the answer should not be to gamble on a stranger from anywhere.
His appeal for Kiatisak was direct. B.Bang Pakong said many Thai fans have already been asking on social media for that coach to return and revive belief in the national team, as he once did with strong results in the past. That is the force behind the call: not nostalgia for its own sake, but the argument that Thailand need a familiar figure who can restore confidence quickly after a damaging home defeat.
Yet the debate is not settled. Thairath still sees a mathematical path back, saying Thailand remain capable of overturning the deficit in theory, even if the two-goal gap makes it very hard in practice. The same view points to the pressure waiting in Hanoi, where Thailand will face more than 40,000 Vietnamese fans at Mỹ Đình. B.Bang Pakong, by contrast, treats the performance as a breakdown rather than a setback, and that difference explains why the discussion has turned from the result itself to Hudson’s future.
The next answer will come on August 26 at 20:00. If Thailand recover, the calls for change may quiet down. If they do not, the pressure on Hudson will only grow louder, and the request to bring Kiatisak back will sound less like a chant and more like a verdict.
