Jakarta Casual

2^nd March 1997 Thailand v South Korea 1-3 Supachalasai Stadium, Bangkok

To paraphrase the Cockney Rejects, I wanna go back to where it all began. Except it didn’t. I’d been in Bangkok a good few years but despite telling myself to catch a local game, at various times I lived within a goal-kick of PAT Stadium or the Army Stadium or even the Thai-Japanese Stadium, I never got round to it. Like many a poor English teachers in those distant days I worked weekends and lived a hand to mouth existence the rest of the tie where my meagre earnings would be divvied up between a few local bars and, eventually, rent on my box like rooms. Eventually I managed to drag myself to a game but as with much of the 1990s I remember little about it. I would find out later from Dale it wasn’t the first time we’d been at the same game though!

22^nd May, 1999 Thailand v Arsenal 4-3 Rajamangala Stadium, Bangkok

Arsenal in town? Couldn’t miss that, could I? I even finished work early and called into Bobby’s Arms for a few before meeting a mate closer to kick off but in them days there was no such thing as a few and by the time my pal arrived I was gone. I don’t recall leaving the air-conditioned bar in Patpong, getting hit by the moist humidity in the car park or getting in the taxi. I certainly don’t remember the fight with the taxi driver! I do remember the steps inside the ground and ripping a poster off the wall and I remember seeing some Arsenal faces in Nana after the game but it wasn’t till the following day I learned the score!

 

 

 

20^th June, 2009 Thai Port v Chonburi PAT Stadium, Bangkok

Three years after I’d started Jakarta Casual I thought it would be a jolly wheeze to add some Thai football to my portfolio so I convinced my pregnant wife that yes, a few days in Bangkok for me would be a great idea. For me. I checked myself into my old manor off Sathorn Road and headed down to Chonburi. For some reason I thought it would also be a good idea to meet Dale in his backyard and then travel back into Bangkok with the Chonburi fans. The game was kind of fun but the lowlight was doing an interview with Kosin, the Chonburi keeper who had played in Indonesia, and not pressed record! My natural incompetence was preventing me from becoming a vlogger!

14^th October, 2009 Muang Thong United v Chonburi, Impact Arena, Muang Thong

Ok so my second game on June hadn’t been so good, Chula United v Pattaya United, but I’d enjoyed myself enough to book a return visit just two weeks before my son was born! This promised to be massive and it was so massive I  met up with Dale early doors and we were in the ground some three or four hours before kick-off which was just as well…the crowd was just shy of 16,000, a record at the time for the Thai league! Exciting times in Thai football!

6^th February, 2010 SAFFC v Muang Thong United Jalan Besar Stadium, Singapore

Muang Thong were fun and a far cry from the alphabet spaghetti of Thai football in the 90s when SET v TFB or RTAF v BBC failed to arouse my interest. Yes, the subtle Manchester United imagery was boring but they were doing what so many clubs in Indonesia weren’t and that was creating a bond with supporters. They also had some bloody good players! When I saw they’d been drawn with SAFFC I knew I had to make the effort to go there. I wrangled a pitchside press pass and was talking with SAFFC coach Richard Bok while the players were warming up when the fun started. This puffed up little fellow in a suit told me to leave the pitch. I replied, politely I thought, I was talking to my mate but he was having none of it. ‘Leave or I’ll throw you out!’ Match commissioners eh? That wasn’t the end of it. I was standing behind a line taking my photographs opposite the main stand and bugger me he comes over again and starts berating me for not being in the right place. I was standing with other local press types but he was only picking on me and I knew why but I wasn’t going to get thrown out of a football ground for calling an official racist! It was a good game, SAFFC won on penalties and the next day while I was at Changi waiting for my flight back to Jakarta I spotted Kawin and he smiled at me! No, I didn’t ask for a selfie or an autograph! Three months later I would be back I n Singapore to see SAFFC take on Bangkok Glass ad again I made the short hop, hoping to catch the bunnies but they never showed.

 

 

 

 

22^nd July, 2012 Thai Honda v Bangkok North KMIT Stadium, Lad Krabang

Back in the 90s I had a teaching job at KMIT. I used to take the train from Din Daeng and alight at Phra Chom Kao I think it was where I would be picked up by the company. It was a long old trek back then and of course little did I know almost 20 years later I would be returning. Much changed of course in Bangkok, I had sworn I would leave if a skytrain ever got off the ground, and of course there was a new airport and guess what? My old stomping ground was close by and there was a football ground right in the flight path. I mean, I had to go didn’t I?

20^th December 2014 Malaysia v Thailand Bukit Jalil Stadium, KL

I’m no fan of international football but I would crawl over broken glass for the AFF Suzuki Cup. For 2014 I’d gone to Vietnam to see the Indonesia group stage games in Hanoi and on the way back to Jakarta stopped off in Singapore to see the Lions take on the Thais. Thailand won that game 2-1 and went on to reach the final. I didn’t bother going to Bangkok but some Malaysian friends said I really should make the effort for the second leg in KL so I got permission from wife and son and headed north. What a game. What an experience. Malaysia won 3-2 and came oh so close to winning the trophy but the Thai side was something special. But so were the Malaysian fans who put on a show of their own. A great trip and a fantastic advert for all that was great about south east Asian football.

Since then my interest in Thai football has waned. They still produce an amazing conveyor belt of talent but the league lacks the sheer strength in depth or the history, traditions or passions of the game in Indonesia. Plus, my son was growing up and I needed to spend more time at home, especially as I was spending more and more time working overseas. It would be nice to get back there and spend a couple of months bouncing around the provinces watching games, if only to put the finishing touches to a book I originally began some 14 years ago!