Chiang Mai FC

And now Ayutthaya, who are in financial do-do, have dropped out of the first division and have been replaced by Phuket, who finished one place below Chiang Mai in the relegation places last year- only for Phuket this morning to announce that they don't want to play in this division and are quite happy playing in the regionals, which is cheaper with the away games.

It's a mess..

 

It's a mess Vol.2: The season has now been postponed again until the 5th/6th March. This is to allow Saraburi and Police time to get their playing licence. The connotations of this are enormous as Police were promoted last season from the first division and the Thai FL have juggled everybody about to allow for them dropping out. It could actually mean that CMFC are relegated again. You couldn't make this shit up.

Oh, and I'm hearing this morning that the Regional leagues, which are two games in, are to be cancelled due to the above

 

We're now playing Port as our season opener, and if I'm not wrong they were relegated last year so this may change again..

 

We've played a couple of friendlies this week in preparation for whatever league we're goig to be in at some point in March. We beat neighbours Lampang 3-0 on Wednesday and Bangkok Utd 2-1 yesterday. I didn't go to any of them but by all accounts we look solid at the back and we have a decent player up front called Gasmi, who I think hails from France.

 

I'd forgotten I'd mentioned him.

News on Twitter yesterday announced that we're close to signing Defender Goran Subara from Police Utd. Another very decent player by all accounts. Takes our squad total to 26 and counting.

 

I'm hearing that with three days to go until the new season starts that TOT have been kicked out of D1 for monies owed from last season. I think I'm right in thinking that if this is true the division will now be only 16 clubs?

In other news, Muang Thong have signed a couple of decent Spaniards. Mario Alvarez Abrante from Zaragoza & Manu del Moral Fernandez Valladolid will be joining what looks like a very strong squad.We'll see you next year..

 

We lost 3-1 at Port in our opener. I've seen the highlights, of which there are none to speak of apart from our goal. Shocking defending for all three goals, we have a lot of work to do..

 

Beat Khon Kaen 2-1 last night. It's early doors so I won't be too critical but we've got a lot of work to do if we are to challenge for promotion. Our defence was susceptible to balls into the box, our midfield got overrun at times playing in a formation they weren't familiar with and our front two looked like they'd been introduced to each other in the tunnel.
Ok, so that may be too critical. Khon Kaen went down to ten men just when they were looking to get back in the game and the gaffer changed it back to 4-4-2 to hold on, which we did, just.

A win is a win, move on, strive for better..

 

Khon Kaen have sacked their manager on the back of two defeats in the first two games. Methinks that's a bit harsh, especially as they were the better team for large parts of the game on Wednesday. .

 

We beat Bangkok FC 1-0 on Saturday.
From my man at the ground:
"A little bit more passion and energy, was on display from CMFC, particularly in the second half, something which had been lacking from the first two matches. Bangkok FC came out more determined in the second half, but with CMFC scoring the early goal, this was essentially the difference between the two teams. To be very honest, Bangkok FC were the weakest opponents that we have faced this season so far, and we can expect some far greater tests in the weeks ahead. Mission accomplished though, and good to get an away win in the bank."

After the early wake up call by Port we've now collected six points from our last two games and we host Rayong on Wednesday before the first of a few international breaks.

 

Tonight we play the very fanciable (not a word, should be) PTT Rayong at home. It's already 31 degrees here - not even midday yet - and it's set to get to a high of 39 all week, which means the players will be playing in something like 35 degree heat by kick off. That would hurt..

 

I can confirm that PTT Rayong are very fanciable. If they were available I'd consider taking them out for Papaya salad and maybe a movie one evening. They beat us 3-1, scoring three good goals in the process, and although Chiang Mai optimists will say that if a shot that hit the bar had have gone in on the stroke of half time we'd have had a chance. Really, we wouldn't.

We've played four, won a deuce, lost a deuce (that's two and two in your betting parlance), all four teams played thus far will be in the mix at the end so it should be easier for a while from here on in..

 

After the international break we were back in action tonight, turning over league leaders Ang Thong 2-0 at home. It was a bit of an uneventful game apart from the two goals as we were expecting big things from the early pace setters but they offered nothing outside of their own half.

Played five, won three lost two, and we've played three of the top five teams. We're in this you know..

Oh, almost forgot, four minutes of added time were allowed last night and in roughly the third minute of those added there was a floodlight failure. The home team only has a certain amount of time to rectify this and if they fail to do so the away team is awarded a 3-1 win. Now the Ang Thong players are obviously aware of this as when the lights started to kick in again they were all standing on the side lines ignoring the referee's calls to get back on the park. Farcical really..

 

It's the Thai new year here next week so the football league takes a break for a couple of weeks, but not before the 1st round of the League Cup which kicks off around the country this weekend. We've been drawn away at Tak, a ground I know well as they were in the same regional division when we were languishing in the third tier. It'll be a 4pm KO as their grounds' floodlights aren't that great. The last time we played there it was 43 degrees at that time so the referee delayed the kick off in the hope that it would cool down a bit. We started the game at 4:45. It was 42 degrees. That's gotta hurt..

 

We lost 2-1. It was so hot in the stands I could barely stand it, the heat coming off the concrete stand must have made it at least 50 degrees. Out of the cup, nothing more to see here, concentrate on the league.

 

Lost 2-1 to Songkhla last night. A bad day at the office all round for Chiang Mai, after a poor first half they never really got in to the game and our equaliser came against the run of play. Having said that, their opening goal came from a penalty that only a referee in Thailand would have awarded when they've been bought and paid for by the home side. Terrible decision.

Still third, it's back to the 700 yr stadium next week where we can get back on track against Ubon.

I would just like to mention the dozen or so cmfc fans that went all the to Songkhla to cheer on the Tigers. It's a 3,200kms round trip and they went there on a bus. They should be back in Chiang Mai by Wednesday morning, incredible dedication.
Oh, and my mate who I was watching the game with who runs the CMFC English fanzine on Facebook, got a call from two foreign fans five minutes before kick off who were a little bit pissed off when my mate told them they were at the wrong stadium and they needed to travel another 60 km to the game.

I hope they got to see the equaliser at least.

 

Won 4-2 on Sunday against second placed Ubon. Could have been 6-6, every time they had a set piece the ball was scrambled away or hit the woodwork, then we'd break away and their keeper would pull off some miraculous save. Great entertainment though, and we've now leapfrogged them to go second after nine games.