Asian Cup Qualifiers

The campaign starts on Wednesday 14th January away to Jordan.

This will be the 4th time the two countries have come together with Jordan winning one with the other two ending in nil nil draws.

All the games have been played in Thailand. All games have been played this decade and have all been friendlies.

What can we expect away to Jordan in a few days time?

Well, although we should have a bit of confidence after playing quite well recently, it must be said, that we don't quite travel well, especially to the Middle East. Our last journey in that region was in the World Cup qualifiers, where we got dumped by Bahrain and Oman, not forgettign the draw against Yemen in the 1st Round - a team that are not up there with Asia's best, so we still struggled against very lesser oposition.

No doubt the heat and humidity will be against us, and the intimidating atmosphere. So the most i expect, our at least would like to see us get is a draw. A defeat would make it hard for us in future games in the campaign, but a draw should be something to build on.

Although we have never beaten Jordan in our short history against them, i do expect us to get 3 points at home, so a point away, should give us an advantage come the end of the group.

Our squad will be the same that took part in the AFF Suzuki Cup, so it will show if the team are still together, playing as one, or if the final defeat as deflated some players. It will be a cagey game. But hopefully the lads would have learnt from the defeats we have had so far, coming against Saudi Arabia and Vietnam.

This will well and truely be our hardest ever Asian Cup qualifyign campaign. And if we really do have dreams of Brazil 2014, then we must stamp our authority on this qualification group and show the rest of Asia, that whatever happens at the end of the day, Thailand will always be in amongest the crowd ad not jst pretenders.