Obb Deewajin
Football Tribe Thailand
After two weeks off for international football, the Thai league return in style with the titanic clash between Muangthong United and Buriram United at the SCG Stadium.
The Last time Muangthong United lost at home was back in mid-May to Samut Prakan City. Since then, Alexandre Gama’s side have collected eight home victories – rising from 16th to 6th place in the meantime. With “The Thai Clasico” in mind, the team spent the international break together at the Kirin Valley training camp. They also beat Nakhon Ratchasima Huatalang United 9-1 (Teerasil Dangda and Adisak Kraisorn with 2 each) and Thonburi University 3-0.
As for the visiting league leaders, they are also in a decent form themselves too – having notched up 10 points from the last 4 games after THAT catastrophic defeat at Chiangrai.
Buriram United thrashed the Kirin 3-0 last time they visit with goals from Korrakot Wiriyaudomsiri, Osvaldo and Yu Jun Su. The first unlikely to start and the latter two are not at the club anymore.
Supachok Sarachat was excellent as a left side forward for the War Elephants against Vietnam and Indonesia. The duel of pace between Supachok and right-back Suphanan Bureerat could be a vital tactical battleground between the two teams. Gama often fields talisman Heberty on the right, an area that Buriram could look to exploit the Brazilian’s lack of defensive input. Korrakot teamed up with Osvaldo against Tristan Do in this fixture last season, and a similar combination down Buriram’s left could prove deadly.
Bozidar Bandovic and Alexandre Gama are the two most successful head coaches in the modern Thai League era. They are both very detailed when it comes to scouting, analyzing and coming up with a strategy that, more often than not, outdoes their opponent. They’ve done so by playing extremely organized and often pragmatic football.
Saturday’s game won’t be one of crazy tackles or end-to-end attack. It will be about positioning. Reading of the game. Well-worked set-piece routines. Form tends not to matter in these rivalries and whoever made the fewest mistakes will ultimately win the game.