Thailand's U22 will return home unsuccessfully from Laos where they hoped to qualify for the Asian Championship 2014. However, the way of Mano Polking's team doesn't end here.

China and North Korea went into the qualification tournament as favorites and came out on top eventually. Thailand lost its opener against North Korea, which inherently is a book of seven seals and therefore hard to judge, by 2-4. Though it was to be expected, however: "North Korea were not unbeatable. But many things didn't gel in the first game and unfortunately we were punished by too much easy individual mistakes heavily" as Sasha Schafer commented towards thai-fussball.com.

On Saturday Thailand's under-22 will start the qualification to the AFC Asian Championship with North Korea waiting as first opponent.

In the course of the preparation, two games against Vietnam's and Myanmar's under-22 served as a final test. Thailand lost both, although taking the lead in each of the respective ties. Against Myanmar it was a 1-2 and against Vietnam it was even a 1-3 defeat. Coach Mano Polking does not see the results as a problem or important. He also explained the two half time losses with many substitutions he made. The goals for Thailand were provided by Chayanan Pombuppha and Adisak Kraisorn. Meantime, the team has arrived in Laos and uses the remaining days to prepare for the start against North Korea.

The qualification tournament to the U-22 Asian championship is just around the corner and this means the first real test for Thailand's newly formed youth national team. The teams preparation is already underway since couple of weeks with its final stage just started.

The Asian championship for players under-22 was brought to life in 2011 by the AFC and should be held for the first time in January 2014. Except of group D, Asian-wide qualification takes place from the 23 June to 3 July. Thailand have drawn into group F together with Cambodia, China, North Korea, Hong Kong and Laos, which is hosting the round.

SEA-Games group stage draw was held on Wednesday for the footballing tournament. The outcome was a shock for Thailand and the aim to regain the title received a damp.

Beside the AFF Suzuki Cup, the footballing tournament of the SEA-Games is considered the most important one in Southeast Asia. Winning 13 gold medals, Thailand is the record champion and after an astonishing early exit at group stage in 2009, Thailand's aim is nothing else than to retain the title this year. The plan got a setback after the group stage draw was held on Wednesday in Indonesia. In Group A Thailand's under-23 is to face Malaysia, Indonesia, Singapore and Cambodia.

As reported earlier, Thailand under-23 preparation for the SEA-Games in November is to start on Monday 29 August. Last week Thailand initial squad with 33 players has been announced.

Kawin Thammasatchanan is one of the 33 and will not have to appear for the first training session. On the one hand, Thailand current number one goalkeeper is injured, to the second it is already certain that Kawin will join the U-23 after the seniors World Cup qualifying match against Australia in November. However, the list of the remaining players is to be subject to change over the coming weeks as team manager Kasem Jariyawatwong stated. Besides, the inital list is not a bad read, although most of the players are not familiar to most. BEC-Tero striker Ronnachai Rangsiyo probably is one most of you recognise. After he scored a hat-trick against TTM-Phichit this weekend, he has now 13 goals on his account and leads the scorer table of the Thai Premier League together with Sarayuut Chaikamdee from Bangkok Glass FC.