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Just hours before the official opening ceremony, Thailand ran roughshot in the first half and for much of the second as Kuwait struggled to find answers to the strong Thai offensive. With both defense and offense clikcing on all cylinders, Kuwait found themselves in an early hole and headed into halftime down 27 points.
But Kuwait rallied late in the second half and scored in two straigiht possessions following a rare interception of Thai quarterback Saranloet Phithaya. Kuwait cut the lead to 21 points but were not able to get much going after scoring their final touchdown for 39 points.
"I feel nothing. Everybody 9on the team) try to be the champion since the first day we practice. We got good coach, good players that support us to be the champion," said Thailand defender Rujanaporn Suppanut.
The team not only impressed the Phuket faithful, but also Thomas Wiking, President of the International Federation of American Football.
"Thailand has been playing for a long time, they should be the winners. They are a very good team. I think if you know what you're doing and you take in the right coaches, then it could dvelop quite quickly," Wiking said.
Three of Thailand's players were part of the Thai middle school team that won the 2005 World Flag Football Championships while two others were part of the impressive 2006 team.
Coach Theerawut "Chok" Suvanratanamanee led his squad to win the inaugural Beach Flag Football event at the Asian Beach Games. After the match, he told The Phuket News how much the win meant to him.
"I feel very good! We do a lot of 1-on-1 drills for one year and we train a lot. My team did very very good. I saw Kuwait yesterday and they play a short and long game - they have two types. So today I put strategy to protect against this," he said.
Despite the loss, Kuwait coach Paul Williams was proud of his team for winning a silver medal since the country has only known about Flag Football - and it's big brother sport of Americal tackle football - for just two years.
"This is a good step in the right direction. Other people are surprised but we aren't, not in our locker room. We expected to be here because we put in a lot of work so it's been good," he said.
BEACH FLAG FOOTBALL STANDINGS
| Rank | Country |  |  |  | Total |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 |  Thailand |
1 | 0 | 0 | 1 |
| 2 |  Kuwait |
0 | 1 | 0 | 1 |
| 3 |  People's Republic of China |
0 | 0 | 1 | 1 |
 Japan |
0 | 0 | 1 | 1 |