League Cup
Quarter Final
Chonburi 4-6 Bangkok Glass (AET)
Chonburi Stadium
Attendance: 3,245
Wednesday 8th August, 2018
Match report
by Peter Reeves
The Titanic was unsinkable, they tell me.
Someone questioned a few weeks ago why I watch Thai football if I'm so negative about it. This is why. No plastic English PL for me, thank you. With its no limit on foreigners nutty idea, built to bolster Murdoch's bank balance and sod everything else, though people are too stupid to realise it. No, last night’s match was right up there with the 'Parrot Sketch' and 'Fork 'andles’. From a footballing point of view it highlighted the woeful quality of teams, officials and players on show every week at many grounds, but for the neutral, just pure entertainment. And what a roller coaster.
I’d hardly settled in to my seat and strapped in before a ball is played through where the home defence was supposed to be. A Bangkok Glass forward runs towards goal. The keeper, Tanachai, comes out and, at the crucial moment, leaps in a star jump, like 4 million volts had been put through him, and the striker rolls it into an unguarded net. 0-1. Did I just see that? was my first reaction.
I was still laughing when, a few minutes later, Smith was shepherding a ball back to the keeper, who was slow, very slow, to come and do something. Smith panics, realizing the keeper wasn't coming, half clears it straight to Worachit. 1-1 in the first 6 minutes. It didn't stop either.
On 10, more comedy, as a cross into the visitors’ box wasn't cleared. A couple of passes through the stationery away defence and in it went, 2-1.
Of course this could not carry on and it didn't. The rest of the half returned to the bland normality expected, as Chonburi got on top of the match and ended the half looking like all would be OK. Yeah, right! They were only warming us up.
Changes at half time, as the visitors’ wide players tucked in a bit to give some midfield support, and it was Bangkok who took control.
Seven minutes into the second half, a glaring miss for an equalizer. Then on 63, they smashed the bar. Five minutes later Tanachai was forced to make a good save from a corner.
Chonburi were reeling a bit, but just as it seemed they might fold, Ciro got across the face of the box with 19 minutes to go and unleashed a good one, 3-1. Game over. Close it out now. No long balls giving away possession, keep it on the floor and at the back for a while. That's all they had to do. Assuming of course they knew how to do that and had a coach that knew how to do that. Erm..!
But, it was a case of ‘here we go again’. Just 3 minutes later, a poor Sharks effort to clear the ball from their own box reached a Glass player who took one pace forward and put a shot over the keeper’s head. He should've saved it. 3-2.
A minute - yes one minute later - a Bangkok cross from the left and a header, unchallenged by defenders who just stood and watched, made it 3-3. 6 minutes earlier it had been 3-1. I don't know what my reaction might have been had I been a Chonburi fan in the ground, but I doubt it would have been very articulate or pleasant.
On we went. The referee decided it was time for him to get in on the comedy, allowing Mattheus, who was at least 3 yards offside, to run through and get brought down in the box. Penalty. The ball landing on the beach from the spot kick seemed the likeliest outcome, given what had gone before and especially as it was to be taken by Worachit, not noted for his dead ball intelligence. Nevertheless, he put it in. 4-3.
Right, you morons, there are 6 minutes left. Close it out. Do what it takes. Just don't concede another. Silly me.
Bangkok Glass had a golden chance to equalize on 90, but it was headed over. I am now standing in front of my large TV, screaming in the faces of these blue idiots, asking them, not so politely, why they are allowing the visitors so much bloody room. The dog's run away, the wife's gone to 7-11, so it's just me and that bloody apology of a coach. I looked at my watch. 93 minutes played now. 30 seconds left and they give away a free kick.
You just knew didn't you. In it came, Bangkok made three, count 'em, three headers unchallenged and in it went.
Twice Chonburi had the game won and now extra time. Tea. The dog comes in. The wife comes back, 'Who won?' she asks and looks in horror at the tv to see extra time starting.
There was only going to be one winner from here. Another free header and its 4-5 and then with a few minutes left a Chonburi player fannying about in the centre circle loses possession. Three against one and its 4-6.
From watching this, last week's debacle in the FA Cup, and some poor league performances, we have a club in crisis. Years of mis-management, poor marketing and community relations, allowing the best players to leave and a general management malaise, has left them bereft of even the ability to show any spirit on match days.
A once proud club on its knees. You can blame the coach, and I don't because he's not a coach and hasn't got a clue. You can blame players, most of whom have been signed as 'filler’, but the buck stops upstairs. The coach should never have been appointed, but then you can ask who else is there? No one.
There are a couple of players in there who might do OK, but only elsewhere, not in Chonburi. The atmosphere is visibly toxic. You get the feeling that the owners would prefer out of it now. Anyone got a few quid? There's an iceberg in sight.
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