Sunday, August 18, 2013

TOT 1-2 Chonburi

TOT suffered their fifth straight TPL loss as a brace from Leandro Assumpcao helped Chonburi claim a 2-1 win.

The Laksi club suffered a humiliating 5-0 home defeat to BEC Tero during the week, and for the first 30 minutes a similar embarrassment looked to be on the cards.

Late arrivals to the TOT Stadium would have missed the opening goal as Assumpcao's low drive found the bottom corner of the net in the fourth minute.

Juan Quero was recalled to the Chonburi starting 11, and the Buriram loanee was causing havoc down the left flank. The Spaniard crossed for Leandro Assumpcao in the 12th minute but the Brazilian couldn't keep his header on target.

Within a couple of minutes, the same duo linked up again and they sliced through the TOT rearguard with ease before Assumpcao nodded home Quero's delivery from the left.

By this stage of the match, it just seemed a case of how many Chonburi would score. Anucha came close as Weera made a sprightly save to deny the Chonburi left back. The former Muangthong keeper made the save of the match in the 27th minute when he acrobatically tipped Assumpcao's header around the post.

The away side continued to dominate, but TOT were thrown a lifeline a few minutes before the break when Prakit smashed the ball home to pull one back.

Juan Quero had two decent chances to increase the lead shortly after the interval. First he weaved his way through the TOT defence before shooting just wide of the target. Moments later his curled effort was only a matter of inches off the mark.

Chonburi appeared to take their foot of the pedal in the second period and Warut's drilled shot wasn't far away as the contest was far from over.

In the 70th minute, newly introduced sub Pipob was unlucky not to make it 3-1 as he curled a shot onto the post.

Prakit was making headway down the left for TOT as his side pushed for an equaliser. The goalscorer forced Sintaweechai to tip over, and with six minutes left the Chonburi keeper did just enough to keep out a shot from Panomkorn.

TOT couldn't force an equaliser as they lost 2-1. They are slipping down the table and on their first half showing, they will be relegated. It was alarming how many attacks broke down because they had nobody in the centre forward position. For some reason they have 6'4 Bas Savage switching flanks to play wide midfield. Surely, he would be more effective if he was played through the centre.

Chonburi's performance had some good productive movements with Juan Quero involved in most of them. However, the Sharks still have a long way to go before they will be challenging Muangthong and Buriram for the TPL crown again.

Man of the Match: Juan Quero - Lively performance from the little man

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