Thursday 28 January 2010

Queen's Cup draw

Group A - Pattaya United (hosts), BEC Tero, Rajpracha, Air Force -

Group B - Navy Rayong (hosts), Hakka Sri Racha, Police United -

Group C - Osotspa Saraburi (hosts), Thai Port, Samut Songkrahm, Army -

Group D - Chonburi (hosts), Bangkok Glass, Sinthana, Rajavithi.

H/T to thaileaguefootball.com

Sriracha Shark has the opening fixtures - including dates, times and venues -  here

Wednesday 27 January 2010

Where is home for The Raj?

An update on the stadium situation once again from the webmaster at football.rajpracha.com
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Nonthaburi Stadium belongs to the province of Nonthaburi. Part of agreement between Rajpracha FC and the province last year was
1. The club will change its name to Rajprachanonthaburi
2. Rajpracha will be in charge of finding sponsors to support the team with exception of...
3. Stadium maintenance which will be done by Nonthaburi
4.Nonthaburi will be in charge of fan-related administrations

Last year, Nonthaburi had its own internal problems. They were not able to get adequate funding to renovate the stadium.

I'm not sure if the renovation has begun or not. But Rajpracha-Nonthaburi will be playing at Thunderdome in the first leg of division 1 this upcoming season.

Tuesday 26 January 2010

Rajpracha Nonthaburi 5-2 Tampines Rovers

A match report from the Raj Vs Tampines Rovers game, used verbatim with kind permission of the webmaster at football.rajpracha.com
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At Taweewathana practice field, Rajpracha Nonthaburi - preparing for the up coming season in Division 1 Thailand  -  welcomed the Singaporean side Tampines Rovers. Tampines are also preparing for the upcoming S-league season, and they will later face Muangtong United and Thai Port FC during their pre-season Thailand tour.
Vorawan  played his entire career from youth to retirement with Rajpracha with exception of a few years playing abroad. Rajpracha newly hired coach Prapan Premsri was also Coach Worawan’s teammate at Rajpracha 25 years ago.
Rajpracha started the game with the first team including former S-league player Kornprom Charoonpong, Nattapol Poontawee, Sarawut Sintupun, Raewat Meerean, and Ratkan Jamparat. Tampines also started the game with stars like Jamal Ali and Ben Croissant .

Both teams played an attacking game. Jamal Ali scored two goals at 7’ and 34’. Rajpracha came back with a goal  at 36’ by Nattapol Poontawee.


In the Second half,underdogs Rajpracha unexpectedly scored four more goals: Dawuda Wulampah 50’ , Sarawut Sintupun 58’ and 61’, and Narakorn Wisettanakan 76’. The match ended with the surprising result of 5-2.

Worawan Chitawanich: Today is only a friendly match, we tried a few new formations and strategies. Despite that, the result is still disappointing. We conceded too many goals in the second half. There is still a lot of work to be done before S-league starts in Febuary.

Praphan Premsri: We are buiding a good Chemistry here. We played as we planned. At this point, we are confident that we have an opportunity to get promoted to Thailand league next season. However, it’s still a very challenging season and we must not get ahead of ourselves.

After the match, the two sides agreed to arrange another friendly match scheduled for Jan 26th when four Tampines Rovers players will return from national duty.

Monday 11 January 2010

Friendly

   Raj to play Singaporean side Tampines Rovers on 23rd Jan. Further details TBA.

H/T My usual source at The Raj.

Saturday 9 January 2010

More about transfers

A communication I received today from soemone who can actually read Thai:
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I read your blog. There are a few things I want to correct.

The 4th player who moved out was No.3 Suphat '"James" On-Thong the defender. He was 2nd Captain under Kanae. We loaned him from Muangtong for 2 seasons. Now that Muangtong supports Phuket, James has been loaned out to Phuket instead of us.

Move in players include

1. Yuthana Chaikaew from Police United. When he was younger he had been called up for national team but failed to maintain national level performance. He is a multi-position player, he pretty much had played everywhere but the keeper.

2. Raewat Meerean from Osotsapa. Striker, former national youth

3. Sulaiman Aawaegaji (spelling yet to confirm) from Narathiwat, left wing, 18-19 years old with great speed and dribbling skill.

Also, Kone was not part of our education program. The club decided not to extend his contract in effort to free up foreign player's quota and obtain someone else who is more lethal.

Friday 8 January 2010

Transfers

These transfers are based on my very poor reading of Thai so are awaiting confirmation.

Out 

Marcio De Silva - Customs Petchburi
Kone Francis - ? (Back to Ivory Coast?)
Niwet Petchchamrat - Phuket FC
+ 1 other player I can't identify

In
1 Player from Police United
1 from Ostsapa
1 from Narathaiwat

...to be named.

If I am correct that Kone Francis has gone, then he urgently needs to be replaced. Rajpracha are a youth team and most [players are studying at university (which is probably why Kone has gone, he's finished his studies) and as such they lack a little in height and muscle even more so than most Thai teams. Kone was by far the strongest and tallest player in the outer field. Get him replaced with another African or a strong Thai player ASAP please, new coach!

New coach revealed

Former team captain Prapan Premsri has been names as new Rajpracha coach. Good luck Khun Prapan!

Wednesday 6 January 2010

Still no head coach

Since Jose resigned, the Raj have been without a head coach. Now the squad is back for pre-season, it's time to get choosing.

I'm thinking we need a coach from Division 2 with a good reputation and record. Any suggestions?

Saturday 2 January 2010

Nonthaburi FC

(Cross posted with muangthongunitedfc.blogspot.com)



Nonthaburi already has two football teams. Next season it could (to my knowledge) be the only province  outside Bangkok - and we are outside Bangkok - to have a team in all three divisions.

Nonthaburi FC have registered to start in the Central Region of Division Two next season and Siam Sport has an article on the new club. Using a powerful machine (called "wife") to translate the article, it leaves me with mixed feelings.

It really could be taken two ways. On one hand it gives the impression of a young management looking to establish a stronger presence for football in Nonthaburi. This can only be good for the province and fans.

On the downside, the whole thing looks flippant. The club have yet to establish a home ground (it may be at a local university) a squad ("we are currently searching for players") or a sponsor, though they mention a private investor has pledged funds for signing higher league players.

This worries me, surely such things should be arranged before a new club is registered to play in the league?

We also need to ask were the support will come from. Muangthong have quickly become the fashion item of Thai football with attendances through the roof and fans from all over Thailand, Rajpracha have established themselves as the team of choice amongst the underdog fans, or those who feel - as more than one Raj fan has told me - that Raj are the real team of the locals.

Perhaps the new club could situate themselves in, say, Sai Noi and regionalise their support. Alternatively they could attach themselves to a certain demographic. For example, if they play at a university they could attract student support, as Chula United have done. Then again, they could just base themselves anywhere and hope the locals attend and support more than one team. Many do.

In any case I guess it would be good to see a third team in Nonthaburi as long as it is well run. At the moment, nothing seems very sure and I would be disappointed but not surprised if Nonthaburi FC become one of several new Division 2 clubs which either disappear quickly, or simply fail to materialise at all.

Raj to play in Queen's Cup

Rajpracha will be playing in the Queen's Cup in February. The club declined to play in the Division 2 champions tournament in Chiang Mai.

Srirachashark has a few more details on the tournament.