BANGKOK - Thailand coach Chanvit Polchovin has called for his countrymen to pack out the Rajamangala Stadium as the Group A hosts entertain three-time quarter-finalists Iraq in the 2007 AFC Asian Cup opener on Saturday.
Thailand - co-hosts of the tournament alongside Indonesia, Vietnam and Malaysia - are hoping to progress from a difficult group that also contains Oman and debutants Australia.
And Chanvit believes that a strong support from the local fans could provide the extra boost to help the Thai side through to the quarter-finals.
“As one of the host countries we are carrying the pride of Thailand and our objective is to go as far as possible in the tournament,” said Chanvit, who wrote his name in Asian football history when he won the inaugural AFC Coach of the Year award in 1993 after guiding Thai Farmers’ Bank to the first of their back-to-back Asian Club Championship titles.
“Our goal is to go as far as possible and we are looking for all the Thai fans to come to the stadium and support the national team,” he continued.
“The Iraqi team is strong physically and the players are big and tall. They are strong defensively but I think our strength will be our fans.”
While the Thai fans have enjoyed a great deal of success at regional level, the national team has yet to truly make an impact in the continental arena, their semi-final appearance on home soil in 1972 notwithstanding.
“We have to forget that we have won the last seven SEA Games champions and that we have won the ASEAN championship three times,” said Chanvit, who has been at the helm of the national team since the beginning of 2005 when he replaced former West Germany international Sigi Held.
“The Asian Cup is the most important football tournament for Asian nations and all those teams that qualify to the first round are the strongest. And the strongest will go through to the next round. that is how the game goes.”
Thailand have put in some impressive performances in AFC Asian Cup warm-up matches, which included victories over fellow qualifiers China and Qatar. The host nation will also be buoyed by the fact that their last meeting with Iraq ended in a 4-3 victory, their first triumph over the Iraqis in 13 games.
However, Chanvit knows that his side will face a more formidable team than the one that lost out in February 2006.
“We will try our best to repeat the result,” said the 51-year-old, whose position as Thailand head coach had been in doubt after he was lined-up to take over the reigns of Vietnamese side Dong Thap following the Thais defeat to Singapore in the final of the 2007 ASEAN Football Championship.
“But Iraq were silver medallists at the last Asian Games and finished fourth at the 2004 Olympics and I think they will have combined the best players [of these tournaments] for the Asian Cup.”