Thai surprise package Osotspa M-150 are adopting a humble posture ahead of their Tuesday evening clash with Group F opponents Tampines Rovers, despite an emphatic start to their maiden AFC Cup campaign.
The FAT Premier League 2006 runners-up had registered a 4-0 home win over Malaysian aristocrats Pahang two weeks ago, a standout result which sent them to the top of the group.
Having achieved such a positive start, the Bangkok-based side will now begin their road campaign with a visit to Tampines Stadium, where they meet former Thailand international Vorawan ChitavanichÂ’s side.
And the opportunity to face one of the competitionÂ’s more seasoned sides has prompted Osotspa coach Arjharn Songngamsap to offer effusive praise of his opponents in typical mind-games style at the pre-match press conference on Monday.
“Tampines is a good team full of players with a lot of experience and ability,” said Arjharn, one-time assistant to former Thailand coach Peter Withe.
“In addition, Vorawan is a good coach with good tactical awareness. He will be a difficult opponent for me.
“Our team is coming here mostly for experience, and I can only hope that the players can gain more experience in international-standard matches like this.
“The club has been in the top three in Thailand for the last three years, but the players lack international experience. I hope to use this tournament to help them grow more.”
Osotspa are not total strangers to continental competitions, having participated in the 2002/03 edition of the Asian ChampionsÂ’ League, where they reached the group stage.
Most of the players in todayÂ’s squad had no active role in that campaign, however, including 33-year-old Thawatchai Damrong-Ongtrakul, who had previously played in the S.League for Sembawang Rangers and Tanjong Pagar United.
Having joined the club only recently after a six-month stint in Vietnam, Thawatchai now plays the role of old head guiding OsotspaÂ’s young legs on the field.
Arjharn is turning to the veteranÂ’s leadership skills to guide an all-Thai outfit missing top striker Kittisak Jaihan, but still able to pose a real threat, as demonstrated against Pahang.
“Our result against Pahang was very lucky – we scored a lucky goal in the first half and had a very good second half,” claimed the Osotspa coach self-depreciatingly.
“But most of our players are young and inexperienced. Our club’s main goal is to develop young players and support the country’s plan to grow more talents.”
“The youngsters may be inexperienced, but they have good fitness and work well as a team,” added Thawatchai.
“I think we can expect this match to be a close fight. Kittisak is missing with a hamstring injury, but all our players can score, even our goalkeeper.”
The comment was clearly a half-humorous reference to England goalkeeper Paul RobinsonÂ’s goal for Tottenham Hotspur over the weekend, and drew a laugh from Tampines custodian Rezal Hassan as well as several others at the press conference.
Stags team manager Syed Faruk, however, did not see the funny side to the threat posed by the Thai outfit, and warned that teams who take them lightly do so at their peril.
“To beat Pahang is never an easy feat, and they won 4-0, so they must be good,” he noted.
“They are so confident of their own homegrown players that they don’t even have any foreigners. We have to be careful of the threat they can pose.
“They speak of our experience, but experience is always something on paper, not automatically translated onto the field. On the day, only the on-field performance counts.
“Whatever we have achieved counts for nothing when we go out to play a new game. Osotspa have already achieved more in their first game than we did in ours, so they have to be respected.”
Respected they ought to be, but Faruk made it just as clear that Osotspa must not be feared if the Stags are to get their bid to qualify for the knockout stage back on track.
Already Tampines have started the campaign on a less-than-perfect footing, mustering only a goalless draw against Mohun Bagan of India in their opening game in Kolkata.
Their bid to reclaim the S.League title, lost to SAFFC last year after coming out tops for two straight seasons, also started awkwardly with a defeat to Woodlands Wellington.
Victory over the Young Lions last Saturday, however, has put the players in more positive mood. It is a result that Faruk hopes will inspire similar success in the AFC Cup after missing their objective two weeks back.
“When we went to India, we were expecting to get the three points,” he revealed.
“We knew that we could expect problems in this game against Osotspa, so we wanted to get three points in our hands first. In the end, we were lucky we didn’t lose all three points, but we were still disappointed not to win over there.
“Osotspa already have three points from their last win, so they don’t need the three points as badly as we do. We’re at home for this match as well, so that makes it even more important for us to collect points in front of our fans.
“Fortunately, the season is still young and the players’ legs are still fresh. We should be able to recover enough from our game on Saturday to go through this one.”