THE THAI FOOTBALL EXPERIENCE
by Dez Corkhill
Sutee Suksomsit was the man who tweaked my interest in Thai football. Having moved from the UK to Singapore to work on ESPN Star Sports’ coverage of Formula One and International Sports News, I went down to watch a game at the ground nearest to my home – Bishan Stadium, home of Home United.
It was April 2002, and the visitor’s number 11 was mesmerising. He was playing for Tanjong Pagar against Home United, and was on a side that was well beaten that day. But even in a losing side, the number 11 was the standout player. There was no match day programme (why aren’t there, even now?), but I later found out the guy’s name was Sutee Suksomkit. A player from Thailand.
Up until my move to Singapore, my knowledge of Thai football – indeed that of South East Asian football – was limited to a news report I’d done of the 1998 Tiger Cup when Indonesia and Thailand were involved in that monstrous semi-final when both teams were doing their best to score an own goal on a ridiculously muddy field. That game made news around the world. It was not a good advertisement for football in the region.
When I moved to the little Island nation, the first thing I asked the taxi driver to do was take me to the National football Stadium. He didn’t know where it was. Local football, plainly, wasn’t at the top of the population’s agenda. My taxi driver was happy to talk to me about my English club, but seemed to have precious little knowledge of even where the National stadium was.
Non-the-less, after that first game I started to go and watch more. Mainly those at Bishan Stadium, and involving a Home United side who were orchestrated by a lovely elegant Brazilian player called Peres de Oliveira. Occasionally I would see Sutee’s Tanjong Pagar as I took a loose interest in the local team.
And then I came across this little magician called Therdsak Chaiman playing for Singapore Armed Forces (SAF). SAF played on the other side of the island, so I hadn’t ventured that far to watch a match. Sometime in August, Tanjong Pagar hosted SAF. Therdsak was brilliant. A little dynamo who was everywhere. Stretching back to my younger watching days in England, he was like a dynamic Alan Ball. Fetching, scurrying, passing accurately, supporting and playing an energetic box-to-box game. He could tackle and shoot, barely gave the ball away, saw a pass and always seemed to be in the right place at the right time.
I got more involved in local football the next season. Scott O’Donell had become Geylang United Coach and, from a friendship forged from him doing some work at ESPNSTAR Sports, I was asked to help out with some coaching of the goalkeepers at the club. Hassan Sunny was a 17-year-old just starting his professional career and it was my pleasure to put this incredible athlete through his paces twice a week for the next 10 months.
It also gave me a close-up look at some more of the Thai players. J Surachai and Sutee had moved to Home United (managed by a certain Steve Darby) and they were the team who would beat Geylang both to the title and in the Singapore Cup Final, with Sutee contributing 9 goals in that campaign. But it seemed that every time Geylang played a good team, there was a Thai involved. Specifically, Pitipong Kuldilog and Tawan Sripan at Sembawang and Choketawee Promrut at Tanjong Pagar.
Fortunately, for Geylang, Therdsak had moved back to Thailand to play for BEC Tero Sasana in that season – and what a move that was. In my producer role at ESPNSTAR Sports, I had begun to focus on the AFC Champions league, and we followed closely BEC Tero’s run to the Final of that competition where they took on and narrowly – unfairly - lost to Al Ain on aggregate. Therdsak was inspirational, but I was introduced to players like Worrawoot Srimaka and to the Coaching of Attaphol Buspakom.
The next year, I got an even closer look at the Thai influence on football in Singapore when a team I was involved with played Tampines Rovers – a team managed by Vorowan Chitavanich and with Santi Chaiyaphuak surging forward as a modern wing-back. We were thrashed 6-0 by a fast breaking, powerful team. Vorowan’s Tampines would dominate Singapore football for the next few seasons.
By now my work focus had really seen that “local” – i.e. South East Asian – football was immensely popular with our SportsCenter audience. We covered the Leagues, and the finals of the Malaysia, Indonesia, and Singapore Cups from 2004 onwards and always received great feedback for treating local sport with seriousness. And the matches were extraordinary. Home United beating Woodlands in 2005 in Singapore; second division Selangor beating Perlis to win both Cups in Malaysia in front of an extraordinary crowd at Shah Alam; and Persipura Jayapura coming from a goal down to beat local favourites Persija Jakarta 3-2 at the Senayan in a truly incredible atmosphere.
Local football. I was hooked.
At ESPNSTAR Sports, my nagging of the bosses eventually got me a regular slot on the “Football Crazy” programme promoting “local” football. We sent cameras (mainly to Malaysia and Singapore) around the region to cover games and try to treat local football with the respect it deserved. The feedback and reaction to our efforts was universally positive.
In 2006, Chonburi were one of five teams invited to play in the Singapore Cup (PEA were the other Thai team invited) and made it through to the final where they took on Vorawan’s Tampines. And what a game that was.
Played at the now-demolished Kallang National Stadium, Chonburi scored twice in two minutes to, seemingly, take the cup out of Singapore. Pipob On-Mo and Arthit Sunthornphit – he of the most magnificent left foot – had Chonburi 2-0 up with 13 minutes to play. Tampines cored through Aliff Shafeein and then, with the last kick of the game, through Santi Chaiyaphuak. Aliff scored the winner with the last kick of extra time in an astonishing match in front of 12,500 supporters.
In Malaysia, tiny Perlis won in front of 80,0000 at Bukit Jalil; in Cambodia an astonishing final saw Khemera beat Phnom Penh United 5-4; in Indonesia a swaying crowd saw Arema Malang get the better of Persipura. All wonderful occasions where we took our cameras.
Local football. I was utterly hooked.
But not, at this stage, completely on Thai football which was going through a bizarre time. Two leagues, no Cup competition.
And a National team that was achieving ASEAN finals despite, rather than because, of the domestic situation. How Thailand produced players of the quality of Datsakorn Thonglao, Suchau Nutnum, Suree Sukha in addition to Zico with the domestic situation so confusing was remarkable.
Pipat Thonkanya’s goals and Datsakorn’s prompting were the keys to the National team, but the domestic ill-discipline shone through in the 2007 final against Singapore.
With the scores at 1-1, a controversial penalty was given against Thailand late in the second half of the first leg. Instead of accepting the decision, Coach Charnwit led a walk-off the field. In front of millions of viewers around the region.
Not even a decade had passed since the dreadful sportsmanship of the 1998 Tiger Cup, and Thailand were involved in another unsporting incident. On commentary at the event, I was (secretly) thrilled when, after a 15-minute delay, Mustafic Faharuddin smashed home the resultant penalty for Singapore. Singapore scored a late goal in the second leg to secure a 3-2 win on aggregate.
2007 season saw Therdsak return to Singapore Armed Forces for a second spell. Thai teams were again invited to enter the Cup, and one of the Thai Champion teams - Bangkok University - were eliminated by Tampines in the semi-finals. And we introduced a programme called “The Top Corner” to Star Sports. It was a highlights show running through all of the South East Asian Leagues we could get footage from.
One of the highlights of that season’s “Top Corner” was a rough Singapore Cup Final in which Tampines Rovers lost to SAF. Guess who scored for the winners? Therdsak – of course. Older, less energetic, but still a game-changer.
Domestically in Thailand, things were clearly improving from the confusion of 2006, and “The Top Corner” and “Football Crazy” were big supporters of Thailand’s revamped domestic championship that season. Helped by the author of this blog to keep us up to date on the championship, we got regular footage from Chonburi’s title winning season and followed it with real interest.
The Top Corner ran only until the end of the 2008 season, and Football Crazy ended its coverage of the domestic leagues not too far after. A media labour-of-love didn’t fit in with the boss’ interests despite undeniably strong ratings and positive feedback.
But the local interest was certainly tweaked. Thai football grew. Munagthong United and then Buriram grew into clubs that took the game seriously enough, that Chonburi were fairly quickly – as a certain famous manager once said – “knocked off their perch”.
It says a lot that when Singapore and Thailand were scheduled to meet in an International in November 2009, there was still the feeling that Thailand could be “got at” – that there was a vulnerability to Thai sides. Alexander Duric scored the only goal in the Rajamangala that night to defeat Peter Reid’s selection. But Thailand won the tie 3-2 on aggregate.
Since then, the progression of the team and the power of the league has grown. As an example, following Buriram and Muangthong United as a commentator on Fox Sports’ coverage of the AFC Champions league has been incredibly satisfying. Thailand’s top team is now capable of punching on a level par with the best of the region. A visit to the stadia in particularly Buriram and Muangthong, and a feel of the passion for successful teams, tells you that football in Thailand is in a far different situation from the awful 2004 Suzuki Cup campaign when Thailand failed to get out of their group.
It’s no coincidence that as the Thai League has got more competitive and the clubs more structured, the form of the National team has improved. The ASEAN Championship wins of 2014 and 16 were expected.
There is a different expectation to the commentary when commentating on Thai teams. In Buriram’s first year in 2012, I was hoping that the team didn’t get blown away. Now they are a real force on the continent.
Internationally, commentating on Thailand at under 16, 19 and 23 level in 2018, you can see the strength in depth of football in the country from all the youth levels. And the fact that a Senior team shorn of its five best players was a missed penalty kick away from making the final of the 2018 ASEAN Championships again augurs well for strength and depth.
Physically, the power of National players like Pansa Hemviboon, Chalermpong Kerdkaew, Tanaboon Kesarat and, most impressively, Supachai Jaided, suggests that teams and players are taking seriously the importance of nutrition to negate what many (including this correspondent) had assumed was a natural physical disadvantage to teams from this region.
So, it’s been a fun time covering Thai football. My professional interest remains in the media as a commentator and involved heavily in Malaysian football. There is much we can learn in Malaysia from how Thailand’s clubs have built themselves into actual centres of a community.
And even the league has created widespread (and excellent) media and broadcast coverage. It is a long, long way from the confusion of two leagues, no cups, in 2006 to where it is now.
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