Bangkok Storm Football Club

Our third game brought about our second loss and if I’m honest, although unexpected, we deserved it. Winless and having lost their opening game by a big margin, Samtivej played us tough for one half and then destroyed us in the second half. Although there was definitely a major question as to whether all their players were registered or not, we as a team have to play whoever stands before us with whoever stands besides us, and in that respect, we failed.

With a few players unavailable and a couple of additions still not properly registered, out of a squad of thirty five players, we were able to call up fifteen for the game on Saturday. Two of our players were carrying an injury and during the course of the game, both players got re-injured and couldn’t continue. Rafa could only play half a game and by the end of the game we were down to one sub. On an unusually humid day, that proved to be our downfall. While our opponents rotated four or five players every ten minutes, we couldn’t do the same.

Nevertheless we started the game strong and had some great passing plays that allowed Tun to break free twice only to shoot straight at the keeper once and miss the target completely in the first ten minutes. The first half was all ours. We limited Samitivej to two lame shots on goal and we had at least six clear chances that we failed to take, and it came back and bit us in the end. Samitivej fielded four Thai players, one of which was their keeper and the rest seemed to come out of the African Nations Cup, but still we outplayed them in the first half.

Then half time came and everything changed.

Rafa had to leave and we had to reshuffle our back line. June went into the center and Abi left his post in midfield to cover down our right. And then Cuno got injured and Wayne took up his position down our left. With two emergency full backs and Abi out of the middle of the pitch, we became completely exposed. Samitivej did well to exploit our weakness and with their fresh players, they started running rampant down our wings drawing our center backs to the sides which left our middle vulnerable. A great move down our left with an even better ball into our box led to their first goal. It was an excellent headed goal and we have to applaud them for their play. The second goal was down to our own mistakes. A simple one two released their striker free into our box and he did well to hit a powerful shot which I was only able to get a hand on but it only delayed the ball another half second before ending up in the back of our net. Two down with more than half the period left in the game.

The second goal woke us up a bit, whereas the first goal deflated us, the second one stirred us up. We got back to playing our game for a period and from a corner, Henri became our top goal scorer in the league with a well placed shot into the top left hand corner that left their keeper with no chance. Soon after Henri was either really lucky or unlucky depending on how you look at it. He took an audacious free kick from just inside our opponents half and the ball sailed high and started to come down. Their keeper could only stand and watch as the ball thundered onto the bar. Had it gone in, the game would have certainly changed, the momentum was ours at the time but like the ball that thundered off their post, our momentum was lost with it. About five minutes after that, they scored their third goal. It was a great move forward for them, like much of the half, we found ourselves chasing the ball way too much and in one move, they had three shots on target, two of which were parried away, the third finding it’s target. We can never allow any opponents to have three shots on goal in our box in one sequence, but we did, and as I said, we deserved to lose.

We’ll find out about the players registration later this week but regardless of that outcome, we have only ourselves to blame for this loss. We were unfortunate with our team and the injuries, but that’s soccer and we should have been better prepared. In the second half we were outplayed, out hustled and we completely lost our shape. We rebounded well after our first lost and I expect nothing less from us after this loss. Samitivej is not the same team that started the season, and if all their players are indeed legal, then a few other teams in the division will be in for a surprise when they play them.

Our Man of the Match was Tun who although didn’t take his chances, played very well in attack and offered great support in defense. The next round is on him.