Cooper hands Muangthong a shock before big match
Thai Premier League club Muangthong United's preparations for their crucial final play-off tie against Australia's Melbourne Victory have been overshadowed by English coach Scott Cooper's shock decision to quit after the game tomorrow.
Little more than a month into the two-year contract he signed with the three-time TPL champions, the 43-year-old Cooper told Australian media that the one-off play-off tie against the A-League outfit would be his last in charge of the Thai club.
“The club has high expectations and so do I,” Cooper, whose move to Muangthong raised a few eyebrows after he briefly took charge of bitter rivals Buriram United last season, told The World Game.
“It was a question of whether or not that ambition was being matched, and in the end I decided it’s better to part ways and this play-off will be my last match with the club.”
It was speculated that Cooper’s shock decision came as the Englishman felt he was not well supported by the club in the transfer market after they last week allowed key striker Teerasil Dangda to join Spanish club Almeria on a year-long loan in July.
It was understood that Muangthong players were yet to be informed about his decision, and Cooper was hopeful it would not affect his side mentally ahead of the crucial clash at Kardinia Park stadium in Melbourne.
“They are all professionals and they have their pride on the line too so I expect we’ll do all we can to trouble Melbourne,” said Cooper, whose side last weekend beat Vietnam’s Hanoi T&T 2-0 to reach the final round of the play-off.
Aiming to clinch their second successive appearance after last year’s debut in the competition, three-time TPL champions Muangthong will also have to make do without central defender Ri Kwang-chon after the North Korean was denied an Australian visa.
Muangthong, who last season finished in the runners-up spot, are also without suspended Atit Daosawang, who was dismissed in the 2-0 win over Hanoi, while first-choice keeper Kawin Thamsatchanan is still struggling with injury despite travelling with the team.
Unlike Muangthong, Chonburi FC, the other Thai side needing to fight for a spot in the lucrative group stage of the continent’s elite club competition through play-off, arrived in China with no injury or suspension in their squad.
However, the eastern club, who finished third in the league last term, had to contend with the cold weather, with temperatures dropping as low as minus-three degrees Celsius in the Chinese capital.
Chonburi’s Japanese coach Masahiro Wada admitted the cold conditions were a major concern as he tries to help his new charges reach the group stage for the first time since 2008.
