The former NSL and S-League player now coaches Thailand’s neighbours Cambodia. He feels Thailand are suspect in central defence and reckons, “under the current structure, not as mentally robust as they were a few years back when they were the dominant force in South East Asian football”.

It’s a fair point. The Thais in the 1990s were a regional force, winning the bi-annual Southeast Asian Games six times up to 2003, as well as gaining two fourth-place finishes in the 1990 and 1998 Asian Games.
The current crop under coach Chanvit Phalajivin – their fifth coach in 16 months when he got the job in May 2005 – look at their best going forward, where they feature young stars Teeratep Winothai, Dutsakorn Thonglao and Panai Kongkrapan.

Winothai, a 22-year-old attacking midfielder, burst onto the Thai football scene eight years ago, earning selection in the U17 side for their the World Youth Championship campaign in New Zealand, three months short of his 15th birthday.

He was picked up as a trainee by English club Crystal Palace in 1999 and began a four-year stint in London. Winothai soon became the great Thai hope, alongside established national team stars Kiatisuk Senamuang and Tawan Sripan.
The BEC Tero Sasana striker will see the big stage of the Asian Cup as the ideal way of re-introducing himself to the rest of the football world. In fact, he’s stated he wants to play in the A-League next season.

Oddly though for a nation playing in the Asian Cup at home, they’ll train in Germany for two weeks in the lead-up to the tournament kick off. “There won’t be any distractions, unlike in Thailand,” he told The Bangkok Post. He got that right – “The Land of Smiles” is a lot of fun.

And to the Thai FA’s credit, preparation matches are high quality: China on May 16, Holland on June 6 and Qatar on June 30. However, a more practical advantage will be the conditions: humid and monsoonal, no-one will be more used to the weather.

“The greatest magic is transmuting the passions. The greatest effort is not concerned with results.” Those are the sage words of Thai Buddhist monk Atisha. Such noble sentiments neatly sum up Thailand’s Asian Cup chances.
The locals are mad for football, but the best from the Thailand Premier League are not likely to qualify for the quarter-finals.

FourFourTwo verdict
Home sides are always dangerous but displacing Oman or Iraq for second spot behind the Aussies will be difficult.