A vaguely serious gong fest for the best and worst 2012 had to offer in the TPL!
by Paul Hewitt
Best Player: Teerasil Dangda
The mercurial Mui was Muangthong United's top scorer and best player. In a season when MTU were runaway champions, he must be the player of the year. The 24-year-old Bangkokian netted 24 times, as did Tero's Cleiton Silva. But Teerasil's all-round contribution gets him the nod ahead of Tero's own sharpshooter. Also, Mui is Thai. We can't go giving the TPL player of the year to a Brazilian.
Best Coach: Pairot Borwonwatanadilok (Osotspa-Saraburi)
Muangthong's Slaviša Jokanović comes within a wunsen's width of taking this prize but he was blessed with a huge budget and a talented squad. However, Pairot at Osotspa guided the unfashionable "M-Power" (!) to a fifth-place finish, just two points behind the mighty Buriram United. The same teams finished 34 points apart in 2011. Stand out results for the yellows included 2-1 and 3-1 home wins over Buriram and Chonburi respectively and a 4-0 thrashing of BEC Tero at Thephasadin.
Best Fans: Chiang Rai United
A few contenders here. Buriram's gates remained high despite their toils in the league as did Bangkok Glass's. Thai Port's faithful could always be counted on to generate an atmosphere, but their dwindling numbers bodes ill for their League 1 adventure. And the 500 or so who traipsed across to the Rajamangala every other week to see BBCU getting beaten deserve a medal just for turning up. But the award goes to Chiang Rai United. The far-flung fanatics of the Fighting Beetles could always be guaranteed to turn up in number when their team was playing in the capital, and their home attendances were some of the highest in the division once their new stadium was fully opened.
Worst Fans: Wuachon United
The bizarre Wuachon United – a Buriram FC/Songkhla hybrid – can claim the highest attendance of the season when over 30,000 (allegedly) turned up for their home match against Muangthong. The same club was attracting ten times fewer fans come the season's end as they slid into mid-table anonymity. It would be nice to say that the people of Songkhla were reacting against this rather phoney club, but attendances at the province's proper club, Songkhla FC of League 1, fared even worse – down into three figures in the end. Disgracefully, Songkhla FC have now been merged (effectively liquidated) with Wuachon who will compete as Songkhla United in 2013. But not a whimper of discontent from the football "fans" of Songkhla.
This again is a toss up between MTU and Osotspa for the reasons expounded in the Best Coach award, but we'll give it to Muangthong: they have international standard quality from front to back. They did also go all 34 league games unbeaten. Not a bad effort.
Worst Team: Bangkok Glass
BG have the resources to match any of the top teams in Thailand, but they finished in a very distant eighth – just six points ahead of Chainat in 14th in fact. Their main problem was draws – they actually only lost as many games as BEC Tero up in third – and draws against the divisions lesser lights. Remarkably, they drew all four games away to the division's bottom four teams 0-0. And they only won three of their ten games against the bottom five. "Not good enough" doesn't even come close. No-nonsense Aussie Phil Stubbins is the new coach charged with giving BG's Brylcreem boys a harder edge in 2013.
Best Match: Buriram 3-4 Chonburi
An eye-popping scoreline and a genuinely enjoyable, flowing game of football helped in no small part by the fact that a potentially, er, 'susceptible' Thai referee was replaced by a Japanese one. Buriram, in both their PEA and United guises, had never lost a home game until this match. Those who look with suspicion upon Newin's tenure immediately played up the connection between the presence of an impartial foreign match official and a Buriram defeat. They may have a point, but they also detract from what was an astonishing performance by the Sharks.
Biggest Upset: TOT 4-3 Muangthong (League Cup)
Muangthong went undefeated in the league but exited both cup competitions at the quarter final stage. Army United's 3-2 win in the FA Cup was impressive, particularly as they came from behind, but TOT topped it by successfully coming through two-legs against the Qilins, and they won the away leg. Unfortunately, TOT bowed out at the semi-final stage 1-0 to Ratchaburi. Unfortunate, because the final was a farcical one-sided affair as Buriram ran out 4-1 winners. Most of Ratchaburi's first team is on loan from Buriram and so had to sit out the showpiece.
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