TPL
Chonburi 1-4 Buriram Utd
Chonburi Stadium
Attendance: 8,450
Gate Receipts : B999,700
Merchandise : B260,000
Wednesday 29th May, 2013
Match Report
What a shambles! There's really no other way to describe it. We were outfought, outplayed, outmanoeuvred, outthought, outmuscled and, yes, outclassed last night. I can take being beaten by a better side, which Buriram United certainly are, but I can't accept such a lily-livered performance from a team that thinks it can genuinely mount a title challenge. Anyone with no prior knowledge of the TPL would think we were in the bottom three and not the top three on the strength of this performance. Astonishingly, there was no passion and no spirit from our lot (Pipob aside, in patches) and that is totally unacceptable. They just didn't look interested and I got the feeling that they thought they were beaten before they even stepped out onto the pitch. You could see it in the players' body language.
The two coaches must also take their share of the blame for what we had to endure. What were our tactics? Did we even have any? Look frightened and don't get too close to anyone in a white shirt? Well, that's what it looked like to me. I'm still hoarse this evening from shouting for us to get stuck in. Even when we had possession, we were constantly hitting hopeful (hopeless?) long balls. Did we ever string together more than three or four passes? I can't remember us doing so.
The team selection too was questionable. There were recalls for Chonlatit and dos Santos, neither of whom had featured in weeks. Why? Why would you bring two defenders who are lacking in match fitness (and play one of them out of position) to face the most potent attack in the country, in the biggest game of the season? The Buriram forwards must have thought that all their birthdays and other present giving celebrations had come at once.
Also, it's in games like this that you realise why I'm not such a big fan of Kushida. He goes missing, when he should be asserting himself and proving to us non believers that he is the player certain sections of the Thai media like to tell us he is. I can't remember one positive contribution he made in this match. Not one. And that, for me, speaks volumes.
Even the usually hard working Adul was anonymous last night. I've never seen him hide like that before. You can usually rely on him to put himself about but yesterday, he looked like he'd rather be sitting at home with his feet up watching the tele. In fact, that's where I wish I'd been.
And as for Thiago. Well, we got all of the bad and none of the good. He is a prodigious talent but he is one of the most frustrating footballers I've ever seen. I know I'm repeating myself but I wish someone would take him to one side and tell him a few home truths. He might not like it but he'd be a much better player for it. I can think of a couple of TPL coaches who wouldn't tolerate his nonsense, no matter how many goals he was scoring.
So, where do we go from here? "To Chiang Rai", I hear you cry. And you are right. Therefore, one consolation is that we do have the chance to quickly regain some pride, against of the weaker teams in what - top two aside - is proving to be a very poor league. Anything less than three points on Sunday is not an option. There did appear to be a lot of dissatisfied fans inside, and outside, the stadium yesterday. And many of them have finally realised we are not the force we were a couple of years ago. Lose a couple more games and show the complete lack of effort that went into this performance and I can see our gates, and our on field fortunes plummeting over the rest of the campaign.
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