Muangthong United 4 Buriram United 4 - Match Report & Highlights

Do they all still hate us?

  Ten years. Ten looong years. The last time I typed a match report here, Barack Obama was US president, covid was a minor virus that had been mainly confined to Hong Kong and Everton weren't crap. Oh, how times have changed.

A few things are still the same, though. Big games at the Thunderdome retain a lively, noisy atmosphere as club shop tills ring happily, fans smash away at the drums and the media overhypes games with the most ridiculous superlatives they can muster up. The official MTUTD Facebook page still has me banned as punishment for the Fowler Out campaign of long ago and the familiar face of Mario Gjurovski is welcomed around the stadium as head coach along with former player Dagno Siaka as his assistant. Robert Procurer, once known for his involvement in the ownership and recruitment of MTU is now usually spotted at Nonthaburi United (a phoenix club of Nonthaburi FC) along with fellow Muangthong alumni Coulibly Abdoul.

I won't bore anyone with long, self-absorbed reasons why I stopped blogging and my involvement in Thai football since then, though I did talk about it here. I can summarise it by saying I've been to a few games in the last decade and I'm hoping that the forthcoming MRT station at Muangthong Thani will make it much easier to attend games regularly and maybe, maybe, get this blog running at full speed again. 

But let's get back to today's action. Our old rivals Buriram have maintained their hold on power while we have openly acknowledged that we invest less in players than we used to.  The predictable result is the "Thunder Castle" are undefeated at the top of the table while we are halfway down, but still playing some darn good football. Despite our recent poor away form, I still think this home game will be close. I only wonder if I'll have any flashbacks to the first time I saw what I thought was a "influenced" match official.  There's a guy with a megaphone outside our stand gently but firmly refusing to allow Buriram fans to enter, which instantly makes him a legend in my eyes.

The stadium is loud, with the away section having a notably feminine pitch to all its songs while the East and West stands look sold out. The north and south stands are both about two-thirds full, with lots of flags.

Mario: we will miss his fashion choices

 We line up almost the same as our previous home game - where we defeated a mediocre Korat side - with Eric Johana in attack, Brazilian Popp on the left midfield and Pathiwat in goal. The club legend and tremendous goalkeeper Kawin Thamasatchanan is now on the bench. At 33 he is not that old for a goalkeeper but injuries have affected his career. At least he's still around, though. On the touchline, Mario is looking sharp. In the last home game he appeared to be wearing his wife's leggins but this time around he's opted for a suit with white trousers. A risky move but he can make it work. On the Buriram side the squad is littered with talent: their tricky no.21 Suphanat is one to watch along with their set piece specialist (so I'm told) Theerathon Bunmathan.

The game starts and we are immediately on the font foot: pressing everything and catching the visitors by surprise. A few fast-paced crosses at both ends occurs before Johana gets a square ball, wrong foots his marker and from outside the box places a screamer around the goalie and IN! 1-0 up, the stand erupts and I can't believe we have scored so early on. A fantastic goal, too. 

Credit: 90min.com

The fast pace continues, Buriram's keeper rushes a clearance, Popp intercepts, squares it to Poramet Arjvirai who hits a shot inside the box that is deflected in. We are 2-0 up! The crowd go wild again.

The pace continues. Both benches are getting agitated with some bizarre officiating decisions. Bunmathon fouls Poramet, who ticks the free kick quickly. The ball finds Joahna down the left wing who cuts inside and smashes a third goal past their keeper. It's 3-0 after about thirty minutes against an undefeated team who, before this game, had conceded 13 goals all season. Am I dreaming?  The pace slows but only a little. BU attack down the middle and Suphanut smashes in a great half-volley from the right wing to make it 3-1 before we go in to half time. It's a lot to take in: a game full of flowing, attacking football punctuated by conflict and bizarre officiating, a 3-1 lead against the undefeated champions. The last time I sat in this block of the stadium with my son I had to bribe him with sweets to even watch. Now he's asking if he's allowed to buy a beer yet.

I'm thinking that if we can can control the first ten minutes or so of the second half, we can't screw it up. But things get even better when we break through yet again: Poramet is through but sees that Johana has more space, he squares it to the Kenyan who takes him time to place a shot and smash it home to make it four f**ing one to the Quilins! How is this happening? It's my favorite goal of the night because it sums up our desire, our effort and the unselfishness of Poramet to do the right thing.

We're on fire now but it must also be noted that Buriram have perked up. In the first half I kept commenting that they looked hungover, as if they expected to win just by turning up. Now they are breaking faster and looking dangerous. That said, Pormaet breaks through into the box yet again and gets clearly obstructed. I didn't have a good view in the stadium but watch the highlights for yourself. The MTU bench is livid but the referee refuses even a VAR check and play goes on until he gives us a softer free kick, almost by way of compensation. This really did mark the turning point in the game. For one thing, our composure started to slip and we looked shaky. For another, Buriram really turned up the heat and for yet another, the ref and officials became pathetic.

 For a while we held out through a mixture of luck and desperation but with 11 minutes left, Buriram scored. 4-2 I don't remember much about that one but shortly after it was a soft free kick but a classy free kick goal that made it 4-3. It almost seemed inevitable then that our hearts would sink and sure enough, Buriram won a corner that was knocked around before beings slotted in by Doumbouya in injury time to make it 4-4. Before that happened, a clumsy, late and dangerous challenge by a Buriram player who had already been booked was ignored by the referee and a free kick was given to Buriram for an incident that involved no contact. So a draw it was and as the officials left the pitch, beer was splashed over them and a certain MTUTD staff member (not Mario) got into a physical altercation with the referee. I don't condone any of that. 

 Wow. What a game. After ten years, how do I unpack all of this? It’s as if everything good and bad about Thai football was compressed into one single game: fast, skillful football combined with tactical naivety, great atmosphere, great value for money, bad sportsmanship, utterly incompetent officials and traffic jams outside.

 Let me start by saying that we should have defended better. However strange some of the ref’s decisions were, we would have won the game if we had defended that final corner with more composure. I’ve been supporting Southampton long enough to know a nervous defence when I see it and nervous is what we looked after their third goal.

 Now to the officials. I need to be careful to control my own bias here after what I have seen before and for all the anti-Muangthong followers out there in Twitterland, I am only too aware that incompetent officials feature in almost every Thai match. And yes, we only complain about officials when we don’t win, the same goes for your Thai team, too. Neither of these facts change the wrongs that happened today and Mario probably summarised the feelings of everyone with his comments in the post-match interview:

Credit: Thai League Central

There are two particular standouts for me. The fact that the referee did not even order a VAR check on a blatant foul in the box and his clear panic and refusal to give a second yellow card for what was a clear bookable offence. There were other moments, too but those can be overlooked. What is the cause of these terrible decisions? I truly don’t know.

Mario resigned (or was let go )earlier today, to be replaced by the familiar face of Milos Josic, who performed very well at Rajpracha (who have also returned to Nonthaburi) with a small budget. It’s sad to see Mario go as he really is a Muangthong guy. I hope he’ll be back in some way or another in future. UPDATE: Mario has now decided to stay on, meaning his resignation was probably in frustration.

For Thai football as a whole, I think sadly my observation of years ago or my more recent one in Dale’s blog holds true: Thai football saw a surge in popularity and growth but that surge could not continue forever. There are good and negative elements to any culture and in the case of Thailand, those elements can all be seen in the business of football. There’s great value and great atmosphere, but there’s also a clear refusal to address deep rotted dishonesty and bad sportsmanship. There’s food, beer and transport but there’s also disorganisation and poor communication. You’ll find friend and entertainment but you’ll also find traffic jams, a lack of logic and moments of frustration. It’s all part of the game, but at least we are blessed enough to have a game to follow.

That’s all for now, see you in another ten years. Or maybe sooner, if I can squeeze an away game in before the end of the season.