(I tried to use AI to generate an image of Buriram playing football but after some very questionable prompts I ended up with a burly ram playing football. Why is the first ram the only one who has taken on human form and is wearing shorts and running on two legs, but his teammates are all unclothed and look a lot more like they’re in their animal form? I don’t know, but maybe I should crack on with the article.)
In the post-match interview of the Albirex game, Coach Ranko was clear in his messaging ahead of tonight’s game – Buriram is the best team in ASEAN. Some eyebrows may have been raised, considering that JDT often likes to hold themselves out as the kings of Malaysia, ASEAN, Asia, the world, even. I think it’s certainly debatable as to which team is better between the two of them. Just as a thought exercise, it’s worth considering also if Vietnamese teams would be more highly regarded if they used as many foreigners as Buriram, or as many “local” players as JDT. We’ll come back to the foreigners point later.
Let’s dive right into the preview.
Buriram is a Great Team
Where do we even begin with this? A whole bunch of stats might convince you. Or I could just show you the damn league table.
What the flying KhonKaen is this shit? Conceding 8 goals in 18 games is mad. Of the 18 games, they’ve kept 13 clean sheets.
Interestingly, 5 of the 8 goals conceded have been scored by Bangkok Utd, who are the only team to beat them this season in the league. In the Shopee Cup, Cong An Ha Noi beat them 2-1.
And on top of that, they have 63 goals scored, which is like almost double of the next-nearest Bangkok Utd. Just simply ridiculous. Look at the gap between the goal difference!
TL;DR: They are damn good.
Their Dangermen
All eyes will be on their fluid attacking trio up front, Supachai Chaided, Guilherme Bissoli and Lucas Crispim. They have been quite ridiculous. Bissoli’s tally of 19 goals is 10 goals ahead of his nearest challenger in the Thai League. Lucas Crispim will play off him, and poses a threat from range.
Of course, behind them, will be Theerathon Bunmathan, who will dictate proceedings as usual in the middle. He is 34 years young, but still silky as always and will be a threat with his set piece delivery. He lies 2nd in the assists table in the Thai League with 7 assists. He can also grab a match by the scruff of the dick neck so watch out for him.
In case you were wondering about Suphanat Mueanta, mercifully he cannot be registered for this match, so we won’t have to deal with him – he only went and got himself 3 goals and 3 assists in his last match.
Buriram a Mid-Table K-League Team
Just in case you needed further proof that Buriram is a very strong team, how’s this from Opta –
Opta’s stats-based opinion is that Buriram United is about the standard of Alanyaspor, a Turkish league club, or Daejeon Hana Citizen, a mid-table K-League club, and better than Rubin Kazan, a Russian Premier League club.
Besides calling them ASEAN’s best team, Coach Ranko also said in his pre-match interview that Buriram is better than Port FC and better than Zhejiang FC.
We have been warned!
The Stars to Align For Us?
However, sometimes when you have no choice but to go for it, all pressure can be off you. Buriram are the favourites – Buriram need the win after they lost to CAHN in the opening Shopee Cup game. Just like KL City FC, they are on 6 points, and KL City can overtake them if they draw or beat CAHN tonight.
They’ll come out all guns blazing to try to get that win. The pressure will be on them. Ironically, our disastrous start to the Shopee Cup campaign may take the pressure off us and allow us to just sit deep, and frustrate Buriram. While we need a win, we are not expected to win – and I think that will make all the difference.
And also – while all the analysis has been on our opposition, how about turning our attention to our own players?
Lionel Tan, Hami Syahin, and Shawal Anuar, just to take three local boys, are in the form of their lives. I mean that. I’ve never seen them play better for club and country than they have done in the past 6 months. Add to that Maxime giving us a timely boost returning from a slight injury, Bart turning in his best performance in a Sailors shirt against Albirex, and our defence being much better this year than last – and you’d like to think we stand a chance.
We may need Izwan of old back, the Izwan who stood defiantly in Saitama Stadium against the Japanese stars, the Izwan who was super confident week in week out during the LionsXII days.
We may need Lennart Thy to finally deliver a performance on the continental stage that gives his critics something to change their opinion of him.
We may need the groundsmen to make the Jalan Besar turf especially slippery tomorrow, so that our foreign guests will take some time to adapt.
We may need this, we may need that – ultimately, when going up against a stronger team, we need the stars to align to help us out. But the stars have aligned before for us – against Zhejiang FC, against Port FC, against Jeonbuk, against Daegu FC, and if you dig back even further, against Ceres Negros. In a one-off cup game, anything can happen.
I stopped myself from saying “the ball is round”, because I find that to be one of the most annoying football cliches ever. The ball is round, so anything can happen? But actually, if you watch rugby, the irregular shape of the ball means that more weird things can happen, precisely because it is harder to judge the bounce of an irregularly-shaped ball.
But yes you get my point – anything can happen, let’s believe. I also reproduce part of my preview from the Jeonbuk game a couple of years back.
You will find some of this is still quite relevant, and hey, maybe it will help us again.
Conclusion
On a night when the stars are to align, and we need everything to go for us, the fans play a crucial part as well.
Even if the team goes 1 goal down, 2 goals down, 3 goals down, the passion and support from the stands must not stop. The team has given us some magical moments in continental competition before, and if there is to be any chance of a magical night tonight, we must help create it.
In my heart of hearts, I don’t think we’ll get a win, but that was what I thought against Jeonbuk, against Daegu, against Port FC – you get the drift.
I am gonna go for a Sailors win this time, only because I think that we have the pace in Shawal to really hurt Buriram should we defend stoutly.
COME ON YOU BOYS IN BLUE!
My predicted line-up
Izwan Mahbud
Chris van Huizen, Lionel Tan, Bailey Wright, Toni Datkovic, Sergio Carmona
Song Ui-Young, Hami Syahin
Maxime Lestienne, Shawal Anuar, Bart Ramselaar
Score Prediction
Joseph and I predict the scores and track our success in a table. Stay tuned to find out who is the prediction king!
3 points for exact scoreline predicted correctly, 2 points for predicting the winner and margin of victory correctly (but not the exact scoreline), and 1 point for predicting the outcome correctly (win, lose or draw).
Eddy’s prediction: Sailors 2 Buriram 1
Joseph’s prediction: Sailors 2 Buriram 2
Written by Eddy Hirono
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