In 1994, manager Thawatchai Sartjakul assembled a team that has been denounced as the "dream team" with players like Kiatisuk Senamuang, Tawan Sripan and Dusit Chalermsan. 1996–2016: flag bearer of Southeast Asia In 1996, Thailand defeated Malaysia 1–0 and win the ASEAN Football Championship (then called the Tiger Cup) for the first time. Thailand were favorites to regain the crown in 2007, 2008 and 2012 only to lose tight finals to Singapore and Vietnam respectively. The regional 1998 Tiger Cup saw Thailand met Indonesia in a match that ill-hearted players from both team deliberately making actions aimed to avoid facing hosts Vietnam in the semi-finals and undergoing technical burden of moving training bases from Ho Chi Minh City to Hanoi. FIFA fined both teams $40,000 for "violating the spirit of the game". Thailand eventually lost the match, inevitably encountered and failed to Vietnam in the semi-finals. Thailand consecutively qualified to and participated in two AFC Asian Cup final tournaments both held within Western Asia in 1996 and 2000 when their "dream team" was beginning its golden period. Coincidentally in both editions, the team's opponents all came from Western Asia and they are Saudi Arabia, Lebanon, Iran and Iraq, with the latter two share the same group with Thailand twice. In both editions, Thailand made two draws and lost the rest, bottomed the group stage of the first and is the worst third-placed team of the second edition. The final 2000 AFF Championship match between Thailand and Indonesia, at a sold out Rajamangala, was almost a carbon copy of their group stage's encounter. The War Elephants triumphed 4–1 again with Worrawoot setting up camp at the opponents' goal. The 28-year-old scored twice in their first match and in the final struck a hat-trick in the first 32 minutes. In the final 2002 AFF Cup final, Thailand again met Indonesia (who was now the host) and won the game in penalty shootout despite taking a 2–0 lead. Thailand again qualified to the Asian Cup in 2004 and was put into a group with Japan, Iran and debutant Oman. Despite vast experiences in the Asian Cup, the team has yet to show a sign of improvement as they lost all matches and became the worst-performed team in the whole tournament. The sign of improving only came in the 2007 AFC Asian Cup when Thailand participated as a well-prepared co-host and was placed with