Thailand v Australia Asian cup (my trip report)

1985

For me this was a football match like no other i had been to before, In the past 25 years i have traveled with my beloved team all over Europe and the length and breadth of Britain and also i have done a fair few England Internationals, I didn't really have any desires to go and watch any other clubs or country's playing football, Untill i met Bobby off another board and he along with his son and a Scottish bloke named Gordon off we all went to Bangkok To watch Australia's third game against Thailand.
Thailand v Australia
This was the final game in Australia's group and they had to win by two clear goals if to have any chance of reaching the quarter final stage , it was also equally as important to Thailand as-well as all they needed was one point to reach the quarter final, a draw would have seen them progress to the quarter finals in front of there home crowd of around 55,000 fans !! and the millions watching across the country on TV.
We set off from Pattaya at 2.15pm from tops supermarket and was going to meet a good old friend of mine Paul at "The Londoner" on soi 33 Bangkok, we arrived at 4.45pm ready for drink !!

OK after a few drinks and something to eat it was suggested way made our way to the ground, it was 6.15pm well over an hour to kick off plenty of time i thought (how wrong was i)
it was throwing down and it was rush hour in Bangkok and also 55,000 fans were all heading all in the same direction "nightmare", at first we found it very difficult to get any taxi drivers to take us to the Rajamangala stadium, untill the offer of three times the usual fare was offered, Bobby Gordon and Jon were to get the first taxi and me and Paul were trying to bribe others to take us there , now wet through we finally made it to the ground we were 25 minutes late and so were thousands of others Thai and westerners a like and low and behold the police had closed the main gates to the ground, so there was no choice but to climb over the fences to get in !! when we got there Australia were already 1-0 up.

The stadium was built just over 8 years ago and holds around 60,000 fans, although there were plenty of police on duty they wasn't policing the game in a correct manner IE-traffic control around the stadium was non-existent and crowd control was dealt with by locking us all out as mentioned before (i guess when it rains ?), which caused people to make a dangerous climb over wet metal gate then a crush for the turn stiles as everyone was missing the game,this for me could of easily become another "Hillsborough Disaster" but were do you think the hundreds of police were ? (inside sheltering watching the game !!)
But hey this is Thailand.
The atmosphere of the Thai people was one of passion and pride, and they had there own official band whom we took pictures with later, good banter was met from both sets of supporters and the crowd was mixed and friendly !! something also new to me following Leeds and England all these years (this is what it should be all about)

Unfortunately there wasn't a bar so to speak to get alcoholic refreshments at half time, so the only way to get a beer was to chuck 100 baht over a fence, then in return hope a couple of cans of Leo were lobbed back, i chose not to take the gamble as the police moved in !!

This is where the naughty boys went in a mobile police truck !!

Match reportAustralia grabbed their first win of the Asian Cup and booked their place in the last eight.

The Socceroos convincingly beat Thailand 4-0 to secure their passage into the quarter finals.

Australia had taken the lead on 21 minutes when Michael Beauchamp headed home Luke Wilkshire's cross.

Suchao Nutnum and Kiatisuk Senamuang both went close before the break as the Thais, who only needed a draw to progress, looked for an equaliser.

Indeed after the break Thailand dominated play, but they could not find a way through as Australia struck three times in the final ten minutes to wrap up victory.

Mark Viduka led by example and doubled Australia's advantage on 80 minutes, and he added a second just minutes later.

The win was wrapped up by substitute Harry Kewell who fired home from close-range.

Australia will face Japan in the quarter finals.
Hope this comes out allright !! Enjoy

HarryofOz · Posted: Tue Jul 17, 2007 10:22 am Post subject:

Cheers mate - great stuff.

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