TPL
Sukhothai 1-2 Chonburi
Thalay Luang Stadium
Attendance: 6,202
Sunday 3rd July, 2016
Match report
by Peter Reeves
As Captain Blackadder would say….Welcome to the Somme public baths (no piddling in the deep end).
What a nice little stadium. No running track, yippee, and a decent crowd with the ever present Sharks fans there of course. Up come the team sheets and Adul is there, unfortunately so is Rodrigo, but you can’t have everything, but no Baggio for Sukhothai. Disappointing. I like him. And away we go. What have we here? 4-1-4-1? Another formation change? Is he going through the coaching manual page by page like an advent calendar before Christmas?
10 minutes gone. No real chances, not much happening except Adul patrolling in front of his back four and I am just settling down with my notepad to start drawing my formation lines and bang. Out of the blue a ball played in and the Sharks goalkeeper has to come, takes it but collides with an incoming forward, ball loose is touched across goal and empty net for Marquez, 1-0.
Now let’s have a little look. First, was it a foul? Yes, probably. The keeper clearly had it in both hands before the impact from the player which caused him to spill it. The impact wasn’t a shoulder charge which is ok but frowned on these days anyway (Nat Lofthouse wouldn’t like that), but…the goalkeeper was a bit of a coward and bottled it. Instead of getting the ball and holding it tightly to his chest and waiting for the impact and just hanging on to it, he caught it at almost arm’s length, not putting himself in the firing line and when the impact came with him holding it out in front of him it knocked it out of his hands. He must shoulder the blame. (sorry!)
Sharks though were comfortable and beginning to make in-roads down the right with Leandro’s pace. He was putting some decent balls into the box but there was never anyone on the end of them. 15 minutes almost a second as a free header from a corner flashed wide. It would’ve been harsh on the balance of play which Chonburi were having the best of. Sukhothai were making efforts but Adul was doing his job in the centre.
The problem with this formation with him in a single defensive midfield role protecting the back four is that he is stuck there. If Therdsak had played 4-2-3-1 then Adul would have a defensive partner in there which would have allowed him to get forward a bit more. He seemed to want to do that but couldn’t. An example of a coach not understanding what contributions his players can make and how best to use them in a system. Not related to Roy Hodgson is he? He was quietened a bit by a booking in the 40th for a needless foul.
Having had one contentious situation to consider leading to Sukhothai’s goal we got one at the other end. By now it was raining quite hard and players were struggling to keep their feet. A sliding tackle in the wet and the Sukhothai player slid into the Chonburi player. Mistimed yes, but a yellow card, never. A brain transplant would help some of these referees. Free kick yes, but second yellow for him means off. Idiot ref. All he needed to do was give the free kick and have a word with the player. Good strike though and for once we weren’t looking for it in the car park. 1-1.
The sickening thing? Therdsak leaping off the bench waving an imaginary card in his hand, yelling at the ref and the ref’s assistant trying to get the player sent off. A coach doing that? His rating on the status monitor dropped almost as much as the UK pound against the Thai baht after Brexit to minus zero in my book. Absolutely pathetic. England had McLaren the ‘Wally with the brolly”. Thailand now has Therdsak the ‘Pratt with the Mac’ as he stands pitchside with his plastic rain coat on in case he gets wet. His players (and us fans! - ed) are getting a soaking , why shouldn’t he? The Sukhothai coach didn’t seem bothered by the rain.
At half time the heavens really opened and at the re-start puddles were forming and players sliding 10 yards in showers of water and falling over. It became a bit of a lottery and a farce. It was all getting a bit frantic and a touch unfriendly as the ref seemed to fail to realize if the tackle had intent or was simply mistimed in atrocious conditions. One or two were getting a bit feisty, especially a guy by the name of Bireme for Sukhothai. Did he play for Saraburi last year? Leaving his foot in, little stamps after the ball has gone, he really was asking for it but what did the ref do? Nothing. Evidently sliding into a player in the wet by accident deserves a sending off but these antics didn’t. 50 minutes another incident.
Sukhothai broke down the right courtesy of a puddle and the cross was flashed in low. Sukhothai player just about to score and a Chonburi defender slides through a puddle straight in the back of him. Penalty? Of course. Sending off? Was in the first half it prevented a goal scoring opportunity if it was deemed a foul. Ref didn’t seem to think so.
55 minutes and neat build up allowed a shot from the edge of the box to drop in off the bar. 2-1 and Chonburi looked comfortable. On came Baggio but he was disappointing and seemed a shadow of the player I saw earlier in the season. But then the conditions were by now unplayable. All that was left apart from the request for water wings was a free Sukhothai header that flashed wide, Rodrigo falling over in the water and looking every inch like a beached whale and Bireme still running around trying to clobber someone. Oh but then in injury time we get the now standard collapse on the floor for no reason pretending he needs a stretcher, which he got.
Chonlatit midweek, Pokklaw this time. Are they taking it in turns a bit like what formation to use? Whose turn is it next? It speaks volumes when players feel the need to embarrass themselves in an effort to waste a bit of time, which should be added on anyway, to get a victory instead of having enough faith in the team, the players and the formation to deliver the win. They were only up against 10 men after all weren’t they, Therdsak? Chonburi aren’t the only ones of course.
Despite the bad taste in my mouth with Therdsak and in injury time with Pokklaw, Chonburi were worthy winners. They enjoyed most of the possession and limited Sukhothai’s chances to just a few. I would still be concerned though. The goals they are scoring are coming from free kicks and others but not enough from the strike force in open play. That has to be a worry because when you are giving chances at your end you are running a risk. Sukhothai could have scored at least one more. Chonburi are missing too many and not getting on the end of some decent build up play. They were though, worth the 3 points on an atrocious night.
Sukhothai? I quite liked the way they tried to play. If that is the Saraburi bloke I like him except for his temper tantrums. They have a nice little stadium. Good place to develop a football club in its community but they do seem to be in free fall at the moment. I’m sure they will sort it out. They could become challengers for a 4-6 place finish if they can though maybe not now this season.
Chonburi are not on the same level as Muangthong or Bangkok United but they could be better. Apart from totally dismantling their off-field management, marketing and PR activity and creating some enthusiasm, they do need a just half decent striker, they are in need of someone to organize and discipline that defence and they do need a bit more creativity in midfield and to keep Leandro on the wing where he was effective tonight.
They also need a coach who can decide on a settled formation using the strengths of the players he has and then coach it and not rely on trying to get opponents sent off to give his team an advantage. But also important is that they must get Adul back permanently. He makes a difference. I understand that the owners are a very wealthy family. Maybe one of them needs to put his hand in his pocket to make sure that happens. That might, just might show the fans that the club are vaguely serious about the future and the team. We’ll see.
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