Finally, the 2011 season of the Thailand Futsal League was kicked off on the weekend. Originally, the season was scheduled to start in April/May this year but had to be postponed because of certain financial difficulties.
The new Futsal season also marked the countdown for the FIFA Futsal World Cup 2012 which Thailand will be hosting next year. With great weather for indoor activities following the current rainy season, the 5th USM Thai Futsal Championship began in earnest.
To make the league and the national team more competitive for international matches, the number of participating teams has been increased from the previous 12 to 16. In addition, a newly-formed Regional League was also introduced – divided into five regional groups.
Defending champions and favourite is GH Bank RBAC while last year’s runners-up Port Authority do not seem to be quite as strong after the departure of several stalwarts.
Samut Prakan and Sripathum University from Bangkok avoided relegation at the end of last season when they emerged victorious in the playoffs early this year to maintain their positions in the top flight. The promoted teams were Suphanburi, Tobacco, Lampang and Pattaya City.
The 2011 season will be played until March 2012 before they are interrupted by the FA Futsal Cup. While last year matches were played only in Bangkok, this season will see Lampang and Surat Thani playing some of their home games at their own courts.
The three main venues will still be in the Thai capital (North Bangkok College, University Sripathum and Fashion Iceland) where most of the matches will be played.
The eight games of the first match day were all played at the North Bangkok College on Saturday and Sunday. The sports hall provided space for around 1,000 spectators. A total of around 500 were there on the first day, but only a handful watched all four games. Many spectators had come just to cheer their own teams but some took the time to watch also one or two other games.
The season was kicked off by two teams that finished at the bottom of last season – Samut Prakan and Sripathum. Both teams looked forward to the new season with certain euphoria.
Sripathum will now host some match days while for Samut, they have received some cash injection and were busy in the transfer market. Two Brazilians, Maykel Ferreira and Jackson, came from I Am Sport.
Samut had the better start to their first game of the season but Sripatum fought off the initial excitement. With the score tied at 4-4, Sripatum’s new signing Maykel needed three attempts to hit the goal for the final score of 5-4.
The second pair of the day were I Am Sport and newcomer Suphanburi. The latter grabbed some attention at the beginning of the year when they reached the semi-finals of the FA Futsal Cup. But this time round, in spite of being 3-0 in front, the game was still tight with I Am Sport fighting back to draw the tie 3-3.
The third game saw one of the two favourites in action – Port Authority – taking on newcomer Muang Pattaya. As expected, the clear favourite got quickly into a 1-0 lead. But Pattaya increased their pace rapidly and were able to equalised ten minutes later.
In the second half, Pattaya even managed to lead 2-1 but two mistakes later allowed Thai Port to come back into the game to be 3-2 in front. But Pattaya never gave up and finally stroke back to level the score at 3-3.
However, with the current season expected to be close a close affair, Thai Port made sure of the full points when 90 seconds before the final whistle, a power play resulted in a final score for the latter. Certainly a bitter defeat for the young team from Pattaya, but their good performance should encourage them for the rest of the season.
In the last match of the day, CAT FC and FC Bangkok clashed. Bangkok lost their narrow lead at the end to lose 3-4 to another title contender.
On the second day of the opening weekend, the first match saw LEO Bangsue taking on newcomers Lampang. As Bangkok Glass had withdrawn from Futsal, their name was also taken off. I must say that I was quite curious to watch the performance of the newcomer from Lampang.
Lampang seem very confident to compete with the other clubs in the league. And this year they have even won some smaller tournaments like the Tiger Cup and a Charity Cup for the flood victims in the south.
But luck was on the side of Bangsue where after falling behind twice, they finally managed to steal in a late equaliser to make it 2-2. Although Lampang tried to nail in the winner, it would seem that luck had evaded them up until a late, late charge allowed the Tigers from the north of Thailand to finally score the well-deserved victory.
The second game of the day was between Tobacco and Nonthaburi.
Nonthaburi got a close 2-1 win over a Tobacco side which featured mostly young players. The players from Tobacco are still in school, but they have been dominating the Junior Futsal competitions in recent years that they have decided to participate in their First League competition.
For the Tobacco boys, it is the greatest thing, to compete with their older role models, especially of course to play against RBAC.
Reigning champions RBAC made their debut in the third encounter of the day when they faced Rajnavi Rayong. RBAC, which practically provided all of Thailand’s national team players, had some player transfer before the start of the season.
Two players went to Iran, as there are more money to be earned (around USD4000). On the other hand, the club welcomed back Thai national team captain Lertchai Issarasuwipakorn from Tokyo Fuchu Athletic. Lertchai was voted the best foreign player in the Japanese league last year. Adriano joined RBAC from league rival Thai Port.
Right from the start, RBAC did not want to leave anyone in doubt over who will be champions again at the end of the season. Rajnavy tried to stave off the relentless attack but was basically powerless to stem the tide.
The spectators soon waved their expressions of sympathy in the ‘David versus Goliath encounter’ with Rajnavys pulling a goal back from young 22-year old Chacrit for the score to stand at 2-1.
But it did not take long for Nattapol Suttiroj to restore RBAC’s lead before the game was settled at 4-2 for the favourites.
In the last match of the day, saw Samut Sakhon and Surat Thani clashing for the points. With Anderson leading the frontline, the Brazilian was on target four times for Surat Thani to take a 5-2 lead at the break.
They then added six more goals in the second half, for Surat Thani to win the tie 11-2 with Anderson leading the top scorers list with the four goals he scored.
The impression after the first match day of the Thai Futsal League 2011 is that the competition will be much closer than it was last year. Apart from the big 11-2 win Surat Thani scored and also the commanding performance from RBAC, the rest of the matches were evenly balanced. And with Thai Port lacking the pace they showed last year, it is likely that RBAC will have a much easier season to defending their crown.
It can be deduced that the teams which will fighting to come in second in the league this year would be CAT, Lampang, Rajnavy and Surat Thani while the weakest team this season could be Samut Sakhon and Tobacco. Although technically very good, the players from these two sides still lack the experience to compete against the title contenders.
SOURCE: thai.fussball
