TPL
Suphanburi 0-0 Chonburi
Suphanburi Stadium
Attendance: 7,339
Wednesday 29th June, 2016
Match report
by Peter Reeves
The first half of Chonburi’s season has been a hotch-potch of performances. Some positive, some unlucky, but quite often devoid of shape and purpose. It seemed quite clear to me that they had a very shaky defence, often rescued by some good goalkeeping, that they were short of effective attacking options and someone in midfield who could control things and keep them in order. Last weekend the derby at Pattaya was interesting. Many I speak to write United off as being poor. They weren’t at all and were a reasonable side by Thai standards. A win there can be counted a good result, but there were a couple of things to note about that game. Firstly the arrival of Adul, a quality player, who stamped his authority on the midfield and secondly in the latter stages Rodrigo was taken off and Leandro took up the central attacking role. For those short few minutes at the end they looked a different side. Options up front, the injection of pace through the middle. They looked dangerous. The question was how would they line up tonight?
The answer, no Adul and Rodrigo still ploughing his way around at the front. Predictably the performance took on a familiar pattern. It is noticeable with the Sharks that when an attack is mounted down the flanks especially down their left flank that the full back comes far too forward to make a challenge that could be dealt with by a midfielder. This creates a situation where if the challenge is unsuccessful then there is a yawning hole behind him. It happens on both wings but the left back was guilty tonight. When you have both of them doing it you are left with a two man defence and no wide cover. A better team than Suphanburi will punish that.
The first 25 minutes tonight quite uneventful. Two teams struggling to keep the ball and create anything at all that wasn’t engineered by an opposition mistake. On 25 the first real ‘chance’ of the game saw a Suphanburi attacker volley over after he had time to get the ball under control. On 29 a Chonburi chance as they burst into the left side of the box but wasted. On 35 the mess that is the Sharks defence was demonstrated to all and sundry when the goalkeeper had to run nearly 30 yards out of his goal to head an attack clear. Where was the defence? It’s all quite amusing but this is Sunday morning football over the park. It really isn’t good enough and I wonder what Therdsak is thinking and why on earth it is not sorted out in training.
On 37 minutes a dangerous position for a free kick for Suphanburi and the first of many hopeless attempts at being a ‘hero’ ended up somewhere in orbit. It really beggars belief at times what these players are thinking. Actually that’s probably the problem, they aren’t. Half time arrived and it had been a poor game really. Misplaced passing, lack of cohesion, terrible final ball. Chonburi had probably shaded it having had the better of the few chances on show.
The second half followed a similar pattern, with both teams struggling to control the ball and even the shortest of passes played either too fast or too slow and causing loss of possession. Someone should tell these players that the pace of the ball is actually quite important. On 55 minutes there was an incident to comment on. Nurul had the ball wide and pushed it between two defenders. The defenders closed up, as you should, didn’t impede Nurul other than he ran into the back of one of them because there was no space to run through in the first place for which the referee awards a free kick. Quite staggering incompetence from an official. The free kick could have resulted in a goal, but was aimless in the end.
On 59 Suphanburi nearly took the lead when a deflected shot almost looped over the keeper, but he saved it well. The resulting corner created another headed chance but it was poorly directed straight at the keeper. Either side of him and it was 1-0. On 70 another clear chance for the home team as an attacker outpaced the defender and burst into the box from the right. The shot didn’t even hit the side netting at the near post. Aren’t we taught as kids to shoot ‘across’ the goalkeeper then if he saves it and pushes it out you might get someone following in? School kids know that. This bloke clearly doesn’t. On 72 minutes another Chonburi free kick. Guess what happened? Yep, car park. Leandro this time. Farcical.
Almost immediately Nurul breaks down the right side and with two players in the middle puts in a cross that just about bounced before it went out of play on the far touchline. If you had made a comedy film about football some of these things would be in it. Chonburi were on top at this stage of the match having benefitted from Suphanburi’s inadequacy from there opportunities in the final third and probably had the best chance of the match when a Nurul shot cannoned back to him 10 yards out and central. Goalkeeper out of position, one defender standing on the line, Nurul scuffed his second effort straight at him and it was cleared. In the last 5 minutes two golden opportunities for Suphanburi to win the match were wasted by ‘professional’ footballers, one of which was skied over from 3 yards.
It had been a game of mistakes, bad decision making and terrible efforts at goal with very few quality moments. But for me, irrespective of all the negatives I appear to have ranted about the worst thing was this. With 5 minutes to go Chonlatit jumped with an opponent for a high ball in a non-threatening position, they both hardly made contact with each other and the Sharks' captain took two paces away and then collapsed on the floor like he’d been targeted from the grassy knoll. As he lay there in his pretense issuing instructions to team mates around him he must have suddenly realized he was on TV. Then came the expression of agony on his face, the clutching of a knee that had not been touched and the inevitable stretcher. Absolutely sickening. If he had been one of my players he would never pull on the shirt again. Ever.
Contrast this with Dos Santos. Turned his ankle chasing a through ball in the first half. Carried on running until he’d got the ball to safety, then went down for treatment. 15 minutes later he caught a volley from an opponent on the lower head/neck region, took a few deep breaths and carried on. That I am afraid is what you need and expect from a ‘professional’ footballer.
It hadn’t been a good game at all. Too many errors. Chonburi probably shaded it but both teams had the chance to win it if they only realized that you’ve got to klck it between those white sticks at each end not over them.
There seem to be too many matches at the moment. No recovery time. No chance to get on the training and sort a few things out, not that I think they do. It seems we have all these matches and then 4 weeks of nothing. This does not help. It’s to help the national team prepare for their next match against a war-ravaged nation I am told. Surely it could be better managed than this.
And Adul? I’ve not seen any comment as to where he was. Perhaps there is a very good reason why he didn’t play. Part of me wonders though if he has come back from Buriram hoping for a permanent move, put in a high quality performance at Pattaya only to read in the media the club won’t be re-signing him because they can’t afford it. I dare say that might deflate him a bit. I don’t know, I hope for the fans sake it is not correct but if it is that is another major PR coup for the club. Two in a week. Doing well aren’t they.
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