Singapore Cup Result July 7th: Woodlands Wellington 0 - 0 Tobacco Monopoly (2nd Leg) Match ended 1-1 on aggregate, no away goals used. Woodlands won 4-2 on penalties to advance to the semi's.
Anyone heard any friendly news? There's a friendly window in August, everyone seems to have a match organised but Thailand. Any rumours?
Now, i don't know about any friendlies, but the search for our new national coach is hotting up. Article from Bangkokpost.com and also in thai script on the official FAT website: Ex-England international Peter Reid or former Germany's assistant coach Holger Osieck are among the frontrunners to become Thailand's new national coach. After his return from Europe yesterday, Football Association of Thailand (FAT) president Worawi Makudi said he was in talks with the duo to succeed Chanvit Phalajivin who quit last month. ''We are negotiating the details with Peter Reid of England and German Holger Osieck,'' he said. Reid has coached Manchester City, Sunderland, Leeds and Coventry as well as England's Under-21 side. He has been introduced to the FAT by the English FA. Holger was Franz Beckenbauer's assistant during Germany's World Cup winning campaign in 1990. He coached Canada to win the Gold Cup in 2000 and steered Japanese side Urawa Red Diamonds to win the AFC Champions League last season. However, he was recently fired by the J-League club after a poor start to the new season. Beckenbauer, who is close to Worawi, has suggested Osieck for the FAT. ''A deal will be finalised in a few weeks and I will formally announce who will be the new national coach,'' said Worawi. Worawi, also a Fifa vice president, dismissed reports that he had approached Bora Milutinovic of Serbia. Press reports here also suggested that the Thai FA would not hire him because he asked for too much money and this upset Worawi. ''The reports about Milutinovic were completely untrue. This only made us and him look bad,'' he said. I think that both would be good options, but prefferably go for Osieck who know's Asian football a lot better
Whoever gets the job, I hope he's a defensive expert! Most of the goals that Thailand conceded during the WCQs were pretty soft. Although they don't seem to have as many problems scoring goals as in the past. My fear with someone like Reid is that he'll just be coming over here because he thinks it's low pressure, low expectation and trouser a decent wage in a tropical country in the mean time. But maybe I'm being unfair on him... The German gets my vote.
On the friednly front, i doubt we will have a meaningful game in August, everyone else is far more prepared and getting organised, so if we do have a game, it will more than likely be against Nepal again, behind closed doors! Looking at the fixture calendar, confirmed games are only the Asian Cup qualifiers, but of course we have ASEAN Championship to come before, which i think the draw is made on 2nd August, i might be wrong there? Hopefully, everything will be more clear in a couple of weeks, and the new coach can start to plan his attack and get the full backing of all at FAT to really get the games he needs.
Peter Reid - National Team Manager? According to my blog, someone has posted, that Peter Reid has been unveiled as the new manager at a press conference today. Anyone have anything official?
I wonder where FAT are getting the money from to fund this? I don't expect that either of them come cheap. I hope that the domestic leagues aren't going to suffer at the expense of the national team.
Let's hope that Reid can make a few close ties with England. Osieck ruled himself out of the job, probably saw what a joke FAT are are juts a lack of money. Reid probably jumped at the chance to get back into management, and possiobly his biggest task to date, although i'm not too sure of what experience has he got in Asia? Hopefully, for any local Thai guy's who don't know who he is, hopefully they will soon be won over when we left the ASEAN Championship and have a real stab at Asian Cup qualification. I also hope his arrival does not kill the domestic game, in such away as the national team disrupting the league. Hopefully he will lay out a plan, and if he wants a training camp like Asian teams do, then the league can be stopped instead of playing weakened teams. I also hope he get's involved in the domestic game and get to live matches, take a real interest in the domestic talent, and not just go by the 'names'. It will be a bit of a joke if Reid is seen watching in Belgium or Manchester watching our Euro guys when he can take a trip Kasen Bundit Uni or wherever. Either way, time to get behind the man. Hope he does well. Does anyone know what the backroom staff will be like? Surely the current members will be kept on with possibly another English man as Reid's sidekick?
Well roar. But the question mark is why they didn't choose any Thai guy? What about Zico, Maleerp, Piew-on or Witthaya? Did nobody ask them? Nobody have think about them a minute? I thought Zico is already waitin' long time to get such an offer. I really worry that the engl. style works out with the Thai Culture. Nothing vs u guys. But just my worry.
Teeratep Winothai set to joins Belgium team http://www.goal.com/en-US/Articolo.aspx?ContenutoId=768900
I just hope he takes the job seriously. That is, lives in Thailand full-time, travels to league matches every weekend (as any international manager should) and concentrates 100% on the job. However, it says on Wiki that he is a registered agent. It seems he may have his fingers in a few pies in England.
An interesting piece from today's Guardian. I'll wait and see how this pans out. Thailand want Reid for national team shake-up By Martin Petty BANGKOK, July 9 (Reuters) - Thailand are close to agreeing a contract with former England player Peter Reid to take over as national team coach and guide them to the 2014 World Cup. Thai soccer president Worawi Makudi said the former Manchester City, Sunderland and Leeds United manager was now the sole candidate and was being offered a long-term contract to revamp the sport across soccer-mad Thailand. "I'm now focused only on Peter Reid, he wants to work for us and we want him here," Worawi told Reuters. "He was an excellent player and a highly qualified coach. He's dedicated and he loves our country. He's the right man." Coach Charnwit Polcheewin resigned after Thailand were dumped out of the 2010 World Cup qualifiers last month after an abysmal campaign, where they finished bottom of their group, losing all but one of their six matches. Worawi, a FIFA executive committee member, said their plans for the 2014 finals began immediately after they were eliminated. "It's our long term plan. We need big changes right now and we don't want to make the same mistakes as before," he said. "We can't afford to waste time. We have the talent and can go far if we are shown the right way, and Peter can do that." UPS AND DOWNS Reid has not managed a team for three years and has been working as a television commentator. His previous jobs have all ended in sackings, which Worawi dismissed as "ups and downs". Thai media have been in a frenzy since the Thai FA said they wanted a "big name" to take over the struggling national side. Serbian Bora Milutinovic, dubbed a "miracle worker" having steered five countries to the World Cup, Brazilian Carlos Carvalho, Austrian Alfred Riedl and former Fulham and Northern Ireland manager Lawrie Sanchez had all been linked with the post. However, Worawi said Thailand had approached only Reid and Holger Osiek, who was assistant to Franz Beckenbauer when Germany won the 1990 World Cup. Osiek, he said, wanted to stay in Europe. Worawi would not reveal how much Reid was being offered but he was hopeful Manchester City's billionaire owner Thaksin Shinawatra, the controversial former Thai prime minister, would help foot the bill. "Thaksin loves football, he loves his country and he has offered to help us, with anything," he said. Thailand have dominated Southeast Asian soccer but have struggled to make the step-up to world level, which former coaches say is because of the players' size and poor discipline. Worawi liked Reid's no-nonsense style and said the often sensitive Thai players had to accept it. "We need a tough coach to give them discipline. They have to be committed and do things his way, or they're out. "Getting to the World Cup is the wish of the Thai people so we need to make that happen." (Editing by Greg Stutchbury)
Zico was or still is coaching with Chula in his first stint, they haven't really taken the league by light, maybe he can be used as an assitant or used in the new setup.
How can qualifying for the next world cup be considered a long term plan? Worawi really needs to drop his obsession with the WC and start making serious and tangible improvements to the League. Fed up with hearing about that 'players size' b*llocks. Japan, both Koreas and China have all qualified for the WC in the past. It's lack of quality, organisation and discipline that is the problem. One thing I'll say in favour of Reid's appointment: I'd like to see the players try to walk off the pitch a la last ASEAN Championship. I think he would personally kick everyone of them back onto the pitch!
According to reports in the Bangkok Post.Reid has been told he can pick his very own squad.Wow, he must be pleased. Also, president Worawi Makudi has set him a task of creating a 'reserve' team for the national side. What the hell? Let's create a decent squad of 20 first. Let's just start from the basics, get a team that puts in a good ASEAN and Asian Cup campaign and build on that before we talk about World Cup plans. Makudi keeps bringing up the world cup, but i think this is just for votes to be head of FAT, as i believe he only has 1 year left to achieve something. Lets start to walk before we can run! We always have talk about World Cup qualification, but we haven't set Asia a light yet. We are regional powerhouses, but even that has slipped in the past couple of years.
Todays results: Premier League - 9th July Royal Thai Army 0 V 2 TOT Krung Thai Bank 2 V 0 Bangkok Bank Tobacco Monopoly 1 V 1 Osotspa Port Authority 1 V 1 Customs Department
Is Reid really a big name? Sorry, I didn't heard about him before. Hm, I remeber that was the same reason why they had took Siggi Held before. ....and just sacked him a year later or so. Is it a phrase or true? If it is true, it would mean that Reid at least had spent some holidays in LOS. Otherwise you wan't be able to love the country. All makes me shaking my head. But let's hope the best.
Peter Reid is well known in the "British" setup. I think it's also correct that he should be able to (or at least earnestly attempt to) drill in dog grit mentality and gutsiness in Thailand, and in that regard I see this as a good move. My concern, though, is his tactical inversatility. Like most English coaches he's a good coach in his own setup with his kind of players (which is possible in club environment through transfers), but on the flip side can be very 1 dimensional in tactical understanding - and so when they are stuck with only certain kind of players, the coach can come across inept. Still, he's no mug and certainly has many years of experience. We'll have to wait and see how compatible he is, though.
I agree, will be interesting to see how much he knows about the players he has to hand, and will show Thailand at least how commited he is to the cause. He's got a big challenge ahead of him in the ASEAN Championship, he really can't treat that championship as a practice session, if he gets it wrong he could be out before Asian Cup qualification begins.
Some good points here DF. The bit about the coach being able to pick his own squad made me smile. It shouldn't even need saying. But the fact that he did say it would seem to suggest that it has not always been the case in the past. Look at Thailand's record in the Asian Cup; very poor. Walking before they can run is absolutely right. Firmly re-establishing themselves as the best side in ASEAN is the first job. That means wining the ASEAN Championships and beating Singapore home and away in the ACQs. No excuses.
I think he is quite tactically versatile, though. At Man City he developed a reputation as a long-ball coach (with Niall Quinn and David White up front) but he certanly seemed a changed coach at Sunderland and Leeds. He's done a pretty good job wherever he's been. Most people agree that he was unlucky to be sacked at City. He had a topsy-turvy time at Sunderland but his sacking seemed to owe more to the laws of footballing inevitability than anything else: that is, if you stay at a club long enough you will get sacked in the end. He worked a minor miracle at Leeds, keeping them up with a memorable away win at Arsenal but with the situation that that club had got themselves in, it was ultimately an impossible job. As for Coventry, I'm not sure what happened there but it looked like a case of the wrong coach at the wrong club at the wrong time. That he hasnt coached for three years since Coventry would seem to suggest that he had lost heart/ambition as a coach. I wish him luck though but wonder how he is going to reconcile these two truths: Worawi's belief that Thailand can and will qualify for the 2014 World Cup; the fact that the current crop of players aren't good enough to deliver qualification no matter who the coach is. The equation results in the coach being fired again.