Courtesy: Phuket Gazette


Phuket United ready for home-debut tonight against Bangkok Futsal Club

Saturday, November 24, 2012

PHUKET: The island's pro futsal team, Phuket United are set to play their inaugural home match in the GMM Sport Thailand Futsal Premier League (TFPL), tonight against Bangkok Futsal Club.

The match will be played at Phuket Town's brand new, 4,000-seat Indoor Sports Complex in Saphan Hin with a 7pm kickoff.

It will be the third fixture of the TFPL 2012-2013 season, and Phuket currently sit in sixth place after losing their opening match 2-1 to Highways Department, and winning their last match, 3-0 on Wednesday in Samut Prakarn.

The Andaman Pearl's next opponents, Bangkok, are currently in 2nd place of the 16-team league after winning both of their opening matches – against Lampang United 3-1, and then 6-1 over Samut Sakhon.

Ahead of tonight's match up, Phuket's new Brazilian signing, Jackson Santos, told the Gazette: "Bangkok looks like a good team, but we have the home advantage. It will be a tough game, and we will concentrate and focus on the goal, which is to win."

Also speaking to the Gazette last night at the team's training session, Phuket's returning Brazilian star, Rogerio Moreira, who said, "We have been working hard, and it is very important for us to win at home."

Asked about how he felt returning to Phuket, Moreira was a bit down, replying that he dearly misses his wife, children and family in Brazil.

"It's very torturing for me to be away from my family like this. They were supposed to join me right now, but we still have not settled such matters with the team, which is frustrating." he said

"Either way, I will concentrate on winning the match tonight, and then talk to the team president afterwards... "

Rogerio was an integral part of Phuket's promotion campaign last year.

The 29-year-old was named Most Valuable Player of the CAT Championship national futsal tournament, in which Phuket were crowned both Southern region and National champions, which thus granted the team its first ever berth in the elite Thailand Futsal Premier League.

Despite subsequently getting the backing of former Phuket Governor Tri Augaradacha, who vowed to help the team by all means, since they had 'created a sporting reputation for the province', the team faces new hurdles this year.

Club Director Samak Rattanadilok Na Phuket told the Gazette: “Some officials at the city municipality have not not been the most cooperative and supportive with us about using the new facility.

“They still have misunderstandings about the sport and don't want us to use the court because they said our shoes will damage the floor... Yet, they did not pose this problem for basketball, volleyball, or any of the indoor sports, including futsal, played in the sports complex at this year's National Youth Games, for example.”

“We have gotten clearance for this initial game, but still need to inform and convince those officials that futsal is like every other indoor sport and that it won't damage the floor.

"We have proposed to take them [the uninformed officials]on an all expenses-paid tour to see other futsal facilities around the country that use the same type of floor without any problems.

"And if they still don't cooperate, we'll be forced to invest in a special kind of matting which would cost us two million baht. This will be an unnecessary expense.”

Mr Samak added that the team had to spend nearly 100,000 baht just rent the facility for tonight's game.

“This includes the facility rental fee, electricity use and wages of facility staff. We have to sell 1,000 tickets per game just to break even.

"This, of course does not take into account monthly salaries for our players and staff, which is about 700,000 baht. Sponsorship is the only way we can survive,” he added.

Tickets for tonight's match are only 100 baht, while team shirts will be available for 690 baht.

If you're in town, the Gazette extends the invitation to come out and support the home team in their Thailand elite league home debut.

Other TFPL matches this weekend:

Saturday, November 24
Leo Bang Sue vs Samut Prakarn
Samut Songkhram vs Surat Thani
Samut Sakhon vs Prachin FC
Lampang Utd vs Sri Sa Ket
Sunday, November 25
Nonthaburi vs Highways Dep
CAT FC vs Chonburi
Navy vs Thai Port





Courtesy: Phuket Gazette


Phuket United fall to Bangkok in home opener

Sunday, November 25, 2012

PHUKET: The island's professional five-a-side soccer club, Phuket United fell 3-5 to the Bangkok Futsal Club, in an exciting and intense match-up in Phuket Town last night.

Played in front of nearly 1,000 spectators at Phuket's new 4,000-seat Indoor Sports Complex in Saphan Hin, the match was both sides' third match of the 30-fixture, GMM Sport Thailand Futsal Premier League (TFPL) 2012-2013 season.

Marking Phuket's inaugural home match in the elite TFPL, the match opened with both sides enjoying equal attacking pressure.

It was the visitors, however, who would break the ice, three-quarters of the way into the first half, with Nawin Rattanawongsawat scoring on the 15th minute.

Capitalizing on the Bangkok momentum, Thawit Kingkaeo doubled his side's lead a minute later, while Pratchaya Srimanta found the back of the net two minutes after that.

Stunned, the Andaman Pearl regrouped and in the final minute of the half, Brazilian import Jackson Santos made good of an assist from his comrade Rogerio Moreira to put Phuket on the board with a beautiful strike from the left wing.

Down 1-3, Phuket looked revived in the second half, ever-determined to level the score.

Cheering from the vocal crowd intensified as Phuket increased pressure on the ball.

Bangkok's defences were tight, and their keeper Katawut maintained good positioning for the most part.

Phuket finally got their break on the 33rd minute with a long shot out by Nattapong Buachai, bringing the score 2-3 and much of the crowd to their feet.

Bangkok quickly found themselves in foul-trouble, having reached the five foul limit. Had they fouled once more, Phuket would have had a penalty kick – but that never happened.

With the clock winding down, Phuket employed a strategic 'power play' formation, bringing their keeper Tawisak out of the nets to help on the attack.

However, the tactic proved to work in favor of the visitors, who managed to capitalize on the vulnerable Phuket defense to score two consecutive goals by Phubet Kongthong and Warut Wung Sammma-al on counter attacks.

With the score 5-2 to the visitors, Phuket pushed on, with Moreira scoring from the right wing in the final seconds of the match to bring the final score 3-5.

Speaking to the Gazette after the match, Bangkok coach Wisaan Maiwichit said: “It was a fun game. As the away-team, we had to be patient and bear with the pressure... Phuket fans were quite vocal. The fans have a part and can affect the result, but I'm satisfied with how my team kept with it to win...”

Phuket Head Coach Suphol Sena-peng was regretful: “In the second half, we had many chances to come back, especially when the score was 3-2, and we had momentum. However, we couldn't finish, and a few mistakes in the end caused us this game.”

Phuket's next match is an away fixture against Surat Thani next Saturday, December 8.

Other TFPL results yesterday:

Samut Sakhon 1 – 4 Prachin FC
Lampang Utd 2 -2 Si Sa Ket
Leo Bang Sue 2 – 3 Samut Prakarn
Samut Songkhram 4 – 4 Surat Thani

TFPL Matches to be played today:

Nonthaburi vs Highways Dep
CAT FC vs Chonburi
Navy vs Thai Port






Posted by Luca Ranocchiari --> luca.ranocchiari@futsalplanet.com