Rayong 1-4 Chonburi
HT: 0-2
Scorers: Leandro Assumpcao (2), Pipob On-Mo, Rodrigo Vergilio
Rayong Central Sports Stadium
Attendance 8353rd August, 2016
Match report
by Peter Reeves
Ah… FA Cup third round. Little team at home to a bigger team. Local derby as well. Packed ground. Both sets of supporters in their thousands baiting each other, volume deafening. Frantic action. Committed players, spills and thrills. One-off match with all to play for. Ah...the FA Cup. So many great games. So many wonderful memories. Then there was this.
It was very clear from as early as the first 10 minutes that Rayong had absolutely nothing to offer except their number 9. Everything was played up to him in the hope something might happen. Never really looked like it was going to. He looked ok but totally isolated.
First real Chonburi attack saw them have 3 against 2 but the ball was dragged back and the shot terrible and wide. Despite Rayong’s obvious deficiencies, the Sharks were struggling to get a grip for the first 15 minutes.
On 18 minutes finally something to look at. A bad studs up tackle by a Chonburi player left the Rayong recipient on the floor. None of the pathetic prima donna “look at me, I’m hurt” posturing here, he didn’t move. Never a good sign. Referee right on top of it did nothing. The attack continued and the ball breaks down the right of the box with little danger until the Rayong defender fell over and Rodrigo said thanks and played it in. 0-1.
The Rayong player was carried off. Didn’t come back. As an FA Cup tie it was over from that point. A good effort from a free kick just over from Rayong was all they mustered in the first 45 minutes.
37 minutes, in comes a Chonburi corner, keeper makes a terrible mess of it trying to punch it. The ball drops down, a Chonburi player left it, A Rayong defender left it, then another defender had a little poke at it and succeeded only in touching it to Leandro. 0-2.
The referee was now running around penalizing innocuous contact between players, with most in Chonburi’s favour. On 40 minutes a Rayong defender went into a tackle, pulled out, The Chonburi player ‘dived’ over the leg and began his Oscar winning performance all over the floor. Never touched him. Sickening. The Rayong player was booked with a bemused expression on his face that said it all. Chonburi are getting quite a reputation in my book for this sort of behavior. But it all seems quite acceptable to most.
At half time I reached for my information on Thai football and its achievements-one of the thinnest books in the world- and see that Rayong are near the bottom of Division 1. So this team is one level below PL status is it? It had been a poor game lacking in any quality from Chonburi and lacking anything at all from Rayong with a referee that defied belief at times.
Second half started with a bang as another example of chaotic defending presented a simple chance. 0-3. On 57, Rayong fashioned a clear chance but an awful header from 2 yards bounced down and over the bar. All he had to do was touch it.
On 60 minutes the referee took over centre stage for a while. First, right in front of him, Naruphol just kicked out and hacked down a Rayong runner. No card. Then Noppanon launched himself like Apollo 11 at a ball he was never going to get, horizontal in his contact, he managed to head butt one player and kick another on his way down. He lay on the floor holding his head. Did that hurt? Good, maybe it’s knocked some sense into you. Referee did nothing.
Then, the official’s coup de grace, as the Chonburi keeper Chanin made a mess of a bouncing ball close to goal and a Rayong player headed it in. The linesman was flagging for something, though replays showed it could not have been for offside. Two players collided on the line as it was headed. Both Rayong. The referee though found a reason to disallow it. Is he Therdsak’s dad?
On 76, a break down the right and poor defending allowed a simple tap in. 1-3. I immediately looked at the ref to see if he would find a way of disallowing that one. Obviously he couldn’t. On 80, a free kick from the left from the Sharks drifted into the Rayong box and a free header for Pipob with no challenge, 1-4. So on to the next round. Once again I write that the Sharks can only beat what’s put in front of them. True. But they could have made a better job of this one.
Now, I am sorry, but if you are going to call this ‘professional’ football then it will be judged as such. In reality this wasn’t even non-league level. It was an amateur game. A poor one. Players with poor technique. Shots, if you can call them that, flying all over the place. Corners and free kicks usually farcical. Diving, play acting. Don’t these players know how stupid they look. Someone made the remark on Twitter this week that Thai football is amateur with professional wages. In most cases quite right. But this sank to new depths. Apart from maybe the top 4 or 5, it’s amateur. I have no problem with Thai football being that way but let’s call it what it is. Maybe then it can move forward. Apart from a few clubs, amateur on the pitch and amateur off it.
Is there a ‘football’ man running the show? Why not, no one that can? Bring someone in then. There are one or two serious people in Europe at the moment who would shake things up. If you want it to be better of course, but I’m not sure that’s the case. Chonburi were just not very good. Rayong atrocious. The overall standard of coaching and training, again with a few exceptions, terrible. In fact with a lot of clubs, Chonburi included, it doesn’t look like there is any. A ground that, from the tv pictures, resembled Baghdad on a bad day and a referee that can only be described as absolutely bloody useless, or worse.
There are some players, in my humble opinion-and we all have those- who I like here. At Chonburi, Adul is a quality player. Dos Santos would be included if he would concentrate on his defensive role and stop going too far forward trying to make up for the inadequacies in front of him I suspect. Then there is Thiago Cunha who they let go. I liked him, good movement in the danger area, dangerous striker. At other clubs you have Mario (maybe the best player in Thailand at the moment), Boskovic and Anthony at Bangkok United, Matt Smith at Bangkok Glass-good defender, Sartoshi and Noah Chivuta at Korat, Sunny, when he’s on form, at Army United, Diogo at Buriram and a guy at Muangthong (no, not him) who is decent, Thai player. Little Baggio at Sukothai, but he does blow a bit hot and cold. But as you can see, most are foreigners. There may be one or two others I have missed or can’t place at the moment.
The rest fall into three categories as players, adequate, not good enough or just awful. Then there are the coaches. Difficult to assess them of course other than the organization and tactical application on the pitch. Mano Polking the outstanding candidate there. Have a look at the coaches around the country as you watch the football. Do some of them even look like football coaches? A fair few look like they’ve eaten too many pies. Doesn’t send out a good message to players especially young players, in a country where eating correctly to help with fitness and therefore performance doesn’t seem to be, but in ‘professional’ circles is, high on the agenda.
I think the biggest problem here is that so many of the players, and in some cases coaches, have such a high opinion of themselves without not actually ever having achieved anything at all. Feted by articles they read, attention they get and no doubt the praises of the ‘hangers-on’. Perhaps if they had their egos shattered every now and then it might do them some good. This is not professional football. It is a very poor apology for anything. Chaos and mis-management on and off the pitch, poor officiating, clubs quietly involved and even owning each other and a myriad of issues from top to bottom. Come on you guys. Tell me standards are improving and that everyone is doing such a good job. Yeah, right! Ah...the FA Cup. So many memories, This won’t be one of them.
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