WEDNESDAY 20th JULY - 16:00pm THAILAND / 10:00am BST / 09:00am GMT - Friendly
Futera United headed to the prestigious Chulalongkorn University’s impressive, 20,000 capacity, stadium for a midweek friendly against professional T3 side Chamchuri United, who finished 4th in their division last year. Following on from Futera’s excellent victory over Bangkok FC this would provide another stern test.
Once again it was a rather depleted Futera team that kicked off, with numerous players missing due to injuries. Incredibly Futera took the lead inside two minutes when Boss pounced on a thorough ball from Jew to rifle home a fierce drive from twenty yards into the top right hand corner. Unfortunately this was to be Boss’ last contribution as he had to leave the pitch due to sickness and was replaced by Few. Chamchuri were now starting to press for an equaliser and the Futera defence that included trialist Basil, were struggling to keep them at bay. In the 17th minute a delightful turn from the Chamchuri midfielder saw him play an astute ball inside Pang and the left winger crossed for the Chamchuri striker to slot into an empty net to make the score 1-1.
Far from wilt after conceding Futera once again began to pass the ball with confidence and purpose. The impressive Art combined with Jew in the 30th minute and his thunderous shot bent agonisingly wide of the post. At the other end Film produced a stunning save tipping the gigantic Chamchuri centre-back’s towering header onto the bar to ensure the scores remained level at half time.
The second half began with Futera dominating possession and looking to unlock the Chamchuri backline. In the 58th minute Futera’s aggressive press saw them win the ball back in Chamchuri’s half and a deft flick from Jew played in Save whose well struck shot was parried by the keeper into the feet of Gael but he was unable to convert the rebound. Minutes later Futera took a deserved lead when Jew showed excellent vision and technique to slide in Save who finished clinically to make the score 2-1. Chamchuri equalised against the run of play when from a Futera corner a big punt from their keeper was won in the air by Owen but fortuitously rebounded to the feet of the striker who combined well with his strike partner to neatly finish and make the score 2-2.
Chanmchuri had the luxury of making wholesale changes whereas their lower league opponents were down to the bare bones and this advantage would show in the closing stages. Futera were unable to clear a free kick on the right in the 74th minute and Chamchuri managed to scramble the ball into the net to give them the lead for the first time. In stoppage time Chamchuri added a fourth against a tired ragged looking Futera defence to make the final score 4-2.
Although defeated we can take many positives from this performance. Once again we showed we can compete with a very good T3 team. Two of our youngsters Art and Save were not overawed and put in excellent performances as did keeper Film and our skipper Jew who continues to show what a class player he really is. I’m sure these games will make Futera a better team and we look to take this form into our BPL fixture this sunday.
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