TPL
Chonburi 2-2 Chainat
Chonburi Stadium
Attendance: 5,787
Sunday22nd February, 2015
Match Report
A few things we were keeping an eye on, on Sunday:
1. The attendance
The crowd for our recent AFC CL play off match against Kitchee was 3,432, which was 3,904 down on when South China visited at the same stage last season. Our opening 2014 TPL home game (v Police Utd) attracted 5,444. What can we expect today?
A decent turnout. We can't really complain about the attendance, and it was a few hundred up on last year's opening home game. The trick now is to keep them all coming back. There was also a decent atmosphere. Even when we were behind, the fans were getting right behind the team. Good to see.
2. The fallout from Tuesday night
After a monumental, energy sapping performance against Kashiwa Reysol on Tuesday, it will be interesting to see what those efforts have taken out of the players physically - especially when you also factor in the travelling and all those sight seeing trips (pictured). They must be shattered.
There were no real signs of fatigue. I think our biggest problem was complacency, not tiredness. We certainly didn't expect Chainat to come out of the blocks the way they did and we paid the price. However, it was pleasing to see us keep going right up until the final whistle and I felt we were unlucky not to win all three points - our second half display was particularly pleasing.
3. Who will be the unlucky Brazilian?
Four Brazilians in the squad and only three of them can play. Who will the unlucky man be? My money's on Leandro. After all, he is our leading scorer. The sooner Thiago qualifies as a Timore Leste national, the better. Problem solved.
It was Leandro. I felt he was very unlucky to miss out. However, he did get a chance when he replaced Thiago (who appeared to be sulking not injured) in the second half. He also had a couple of decent chances to add to his season's tally.
4. Therdsak Chaiman
Rumours are he's looking at a coaching career in the not too distant future. It has been noticeable that he's been sitting next to Jadet on the bench for the last couple of matches. Picking up tips? Passing on ideas? Cosying up to the boss? Watch this space...
From my position in the main stand, it was difficult to see what sort of interaction (if any) took place between Therdy and Jadet. However, the fact that he didn't get on again - in a match that he could have had an influence - would suggest that he's now been given a watching brief. However, if he's not playing because the coach doesn't think he's up to it, it's time to worry!
5. Your eyesight
Visitors Chainat have a history of wearing rather distinctive (read hideous) kits. I wonder what kind of monstrosity they'll inflict on us this evening? I've packed my shades, just in case.
Awful. Just awful. I'm sure the person who designs their kits is having a real laugh at their expense. The car crash of a garment they wore last night was even worse than last year's tablecloth design - and that's some achievement!
6. The Matchday programme
In the last couple of years we've gone from a professionally produced, informative, traditional looking programme to last season's tacky and cheap foldout poster - which contained nothing instructive whatsoever. It was clearly a cost cutting exercise. Let's hope we can now afford a return to the quality of pre 2014.
Sadly, it looks like we're stuck with the foldout design for another year. Again, it's not much to write home about, although it does open out into a nice fill in chart with all the 2015 fixtures on it - which is more than we got last time. However, there is very little content and about a third of it is taken up with adverts. Could (and should) do better.
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