Chiang Mai FC

My new love, started supporting them last year as they are now my local team. They won the league last year then had to go through a series of play-off games before finally being promoted to the 1st division.
We were in the 2nd division last year which is regionalised so we only played teams in the north east of the country. It's a massive area of land though, so we were still travelling close to 1,500kms round trip for some away games and the third closest team was 350kms away, not exactly a hive for local derbies.

Now we're in the 1st division I won't be able to go to many away games as it's just too far to travel. The distance from Chiang Mai to one team from the south of Thailand is the equivalent of travelling from Birmingham to Zagreb, and that's a long way.

All is not rosy though, because a couple of months ago the owner of the club told the supporters that CMFC were going to take a year out and come back the following year back in the 2nd division. His reasoning was that he didn't want the fans to suffer the indignity of our side getting beat on a regular basis, what he really means is he can't afford the transport costs for the away matches. Fans and the media begged him to change his mind and now we're back on, but for how long no one knows.

We lost several of our players at the end of last season to premiership teams and now we've had to scour the free agency market to get a team together for this campaign. It could get messy.

The season starts next Saturday and runs until October/November. We're away at Trat first up, which is south east of Bangkok, a long way away. I've heard the owner has asked if the players will travel there by bus, which is insane. It could get very messy..

 

We've got a warm up game tomorrow evening against Uttaradit FC, a side that we played against in last year's division 2. This game will give us fans a good idea of how far we've come with the new playing staff settling in..

 

Won 2-1 last night. Result hardly matters because it was more a training game than a fierce contest but there was some promising signs for CMFC. My hero, Angelo Machuca scored the kind of goal that the word subliminal was invented for and we had some nice linkage down the left before the gaffer changed everything at half time.
Not sure if this squad will be good enough for the 1st division but it's not long now before we all find out.

Well, until I find out and then bore you lot with it is what I mean..

 

I should mention at this point that all the players are Lady boys.

There, that should do it..

 

I'll take the false hope any day as long as it's diluted with a soupçon of excitement now and again..

 

Won 1-0 last night. Machuca scored with a dipping volley from 20 yards out during Fergie time. Great start to the season.

 

Short clippage but it shows the goal. Tidy enough, loike..

http://sstv.siamsport.co.th/video.php?IDClipVDO=00044185

 

We've got a week off the league next week as we go to 2nd division team, Chiang Rai, for the 1st round of the League Cup. It's a three hour drive from Chiang Mai so of course I'm going to this one, it'd be rude not to. If anyone needs a lift or directions to the ground just give me a shout.

 

It's going to be a bit weird next week because there's only one player from last year that I'll recognise, the rest of the team are all new signings due to the turmoil the club was in during close season.

Still, there's new potential heroes on show on Saturday. Can't be a bad thing like.

 

No sign of any badgers here, Chopperinho, but there is this guy...............>:rave:

Now he knows how to parteey..

 

I'd never heard of him before Google got the better of me just now. Wiki says he plays for TOT in the Thai Premier league, so if we get promoted I may get to see at least one of his hairstyles.

By the way, each team here is allowed a certain amount of overseas players. Until last year and if the rules haven't changed since then, a side is allowed seven foreign players on the payroll, five of which can be in the match day squad but only three of them can be on the pitch at the same time. Players from other Asian countries don't count but you can only have two of them in your squad and only one at a time in the team.

 

You'd think so but there are a lot of Lady boys that go to the games and they scream louder than the girls. A story for another day perhaps..

 

Off to Chinag Rai today for the cup game and the first away game of the season. Unfortunately there won't be that many this season because of the distances involved so this'll be one to savour.
We're making a weekend of it too so after the match we're staying over in the town and tomorrow we're going into Burma for a bit of cheap shopping in Mae Sai before heading off to Chiang Saen, a border town between Thailand and Laos where there are plenty of guesthouses and eateries on the banks of the mighty Mekong. Then on Monday it will be back to Chiang Mai via the lovely town of Phayao, where there is a beautiful lake to sit alongside and have spicy fish curry.

have it!