BANGKOK, 22 December 2004 — Germany crushed Thailand 5-1 yesterday to end their three-game tour of Asia on a high note after their weekend defeat by South Korea.

Kevin Kuranyi and Lukas Podolski both scored twice for Germany, who coped well with the sweltering heat in Bangkok following matches in bitterly cold Yokohama and Pusan.

Striker Gerald Asamoah was also on target for the 2002 World Cup runners-up, who led 2-0 at halftime after Kuranyi strikes in the 33rd and 38th minutes.

Sarayut Chaikamdee scored in the 58th minute to give brief hope to Thailand, whose defense of the regional Tiger Cup came to a halt last week when they were knocked out of the competition.

“This victory is a bit of a Christmas present for the team,” Germany coach Juergen Klinsmann told reporters.

“We controlled the match and should have scored more goals but the pleasing thing has been the chemistry among the squad, which has been fantastic.”

Germany overpowered Asian champions Japan 3-0 in their opening game last Thursday but were beaten 3-1 by South Korea on Sunday as the hosts avenged their loss in the 2002 World Cup semifinal.

The defeat in Pusan ended Germany’s unbeaten record under Klinsmann, who rested captain Michael Ballack, goalkeeper Oliver Kahn and striker Miroslav Klose against Thailand. The three-times World Cup winners have now won five, drawn one and lost one since Klinsmann took over from Rudi Voeller in July.

Their games against Japan, South Korea and Thailand were a reward for the backing Germany received from Asian countries in their successful bid to host the 2006 World Cup.

“There have been a lot of positives to take from the trip,” Klinsmann said. “The integration between the younger players and the experienced players was a major plus.”

Meantime, Switzerland’s hopes of building a new stadium in Zurich for the 2008 European championship were dealt a blow yesterday when a leading bank said it would not help finance the project.

“Discussions showed that the construction of a new stadium for Zurich would have brought a number of problems and political risks,” Zuercher Kantonalbank, the country’s third largest bank, said in a statement.

“Sponsoring this project with a three-digit million franc sum would have been completely out of proportion to our other sponsoring activities.”

The new arena, which was to be built north of the city near the airport, would have cost up to 130 million Swiss francs ($113.5 million).

The Swiss, who are co-hosting the soccer tournament with Austria, will instead renovate the existing Letzigrund athletics stadium as an alternative Euro 2008 venue.

The Letzigrund stadium was already scheduled for a 110-million Swiss franc renovation starting at the end of 2005.

Earlier this year, the city of Zurich said Letzigrund would be ready by the summer of 2007, a deadline set by European soccer’s governing body UEFA.

Under the proposal, 5,000 temporary seats will be added to the athletics stadium, bringing it up to the 30,000 all-seater capacity required by UEFA, and thus giving Switzerland the four international stadiums that it promised to deliver during the bidding process.

The seven other venues selected for Euro 2008 are Basel, Berne and Geneva in Switzerland and Vienna, Klagenfurt, Salzburg and Innsbruck in Austria.