Chonburi 1-0 Pattaya Utd - Match Report: 2017

TPL

Chonburi 1-0 Pattaya Utd

Chonburi Stadium

Attendance: 2,669

Saturday 17th June, 2017

 

Match Report

by Peter Reeves

If ‘as they say’ all things even out over a season then Chonburi had better prepare themselves for an unfortunate second half of the year. If it all were to be repaid in one game the resulting avalanche of bad fortune would make Super Power’s result look like leniency.

 

I had been quite looking forward to this game. No football, well attempts at it, for a few weeks, local derby in an area boasting maybe 5 million people for both clubs. Two committed teams out to take the bragging rights. Packed stadium. Never works out does it.

 

After 15 minutes I remembered why I get up many people’s noses here with my cynicism and ‘nasty-critic’ comments. By the end of the match it was a struggle to come up with anything to say, but there was plenty to comment on. I suppose it says something when one talking point is Chanin’s pink kit. He should have gone back with the visitors after the match. I’m sure he wouldn’t be short of gainful employment adorned like that.

 

The match?  For the first 20 minutes Sharks were unsurprisingly on top given the ineptitude of the opposition, but as usual weren’t really creating meaningful chances. On 24 minutes a pass across the face of his own box by a Sharks defender presented a chance for Pattaya, but the blur of Chanins legs and arms flapping about in pink probably blinded the attacker and what should have been a goal went to nothing.

 

On 42 the visitors found themselves advancing into the home penalty area with a 3 against 1. The 3 of them still contrived to miss, as it hit the post and came out into the Pink Panthers’ hands. On 42 a ball played over the top  saw the Pattaya attacker get away to be clean through on goal only to be body checked by ‘last man’ Chonlatit. Yellow, yes yellow card. Mmm I thought.

 

Half time arrived. Chonburi had a lot of possession but were hardly convincing. Pattaya unlikely to beat the amateurs in my home town after they’ve just stumbled out of the pub for their Sunday bit of football fun. I struggle to think of one chance Chonburi had ‘created’. There had been a few scrambles and half chances, mostly provided by the visitors’ novel defensive game plan of just clear it to the edge of the box and let them have a shot. Neither team seemed able to just keep the ball and the visitors especially seemed to be having a hard time understanding the idea is to give it to someone in the same colour shirt. Chonburi though, despite their dominance, could consider themselves fortunate not to be behind by at least one.

 

Second half, Pattaya got a bit better. But the pattern remained. On 50 Chonlatit dragged another player down on the edge of the box. Punishment? Nothing. Is he related to the ref? Mmm I thought. And then on 76 the ‘penalty’. Pattaya came back and smashed the bar in the dying minutes. Sharks fans go home happy but in terms of actual close goal encounters could have lost 0-3, two on the woodwork and the other when the poor pass left the attacker with only Chanin to beat. Chonburi had created nothing. A few speculative efforts from distance and a few Pattaya presented scrambles. Nurul did win gold in the 3 metre springboard event though.

 

I am left though with a few questions aimed at our referee. Why did you give the home side free kicks for the slightest, and often no contact by a Pattaya player? After the first two or three I began to count. Eight times. Yet there was very little coming back in the other direction. Why did you not send Chonlatit off in the 42 minute? He was the last man. Why did you take no action when the same player physically dragged an opponent down on the edge of the box, an opponent who I might point out would have had only the keeper in front of him albeit at an acute angle. You could have sent him off twice. Why did you give a penalty to Chonburi? There was no contact. TV replays showed there was no contact. I could go on but I don’t want to wear out his brain cell.

 

Chonburi in terms of possession and overall performance deserved to win but they could easily have been embarrassed if just one of those shots that hit the post and the bar had gone in, or if the attacker had shown an element of skill when confronted by the whirling pink dervish. Once again they got out of jail and looking back at the number of points achieved by more than dubious penalties given in their favour and other games where they had been outplayed and still fortune was on their side, the league table would not make such happy reading.

 

Will it all even out over the season as the experts say? I doubt it when you have refs like him.