Kiatisak’s men raring to go against Saudis
Thailand coach Kiatisak Senamuang is not worried about the hot weather in Saudi Arabia.
Having trained in Qatar, the Thai team arrived in Riyadh on Monday ahead of their World Cup qualifier against the Saudis tomorrow.
“The weather is about 43-45C but this should not affect our players because we trained in Doha before we came here,” Kiatisak said. “Every player is ready for the match.” The two teams are in Group B of Asia’s final qualifying round for the 2018 World Cup along with Japan, Australia, the United Arab Emirates and Iraq.
In Group A are South Korea, Iran, Qatar, Uzbekistan, China and Syria.
The top two teams in each group earn tickets to Russia 2018.
The two third-placed teams will meet each other with the winners facing a Concacaf side in a play-off.
Kiatisak was greeted by a large number of local journalists when the squad arrived in Riyadh.
Some of them wanted Kiatisak to confirm reports which quoted him as saying that playing Saudi Arabia was just a ‘warmup game’ for Thailand ahead of their next match against Japan in Bangkok next week.
“We respect every opponent. Saudi Arabia are a strong team and I did not say this would be an easy game,” the Thai coach said.
Kiatisak was also asked if his players would be affected by about 60,000 supporters at the King Fahd International Stadium.
Kiatisak said his men had played in front of about 100,000 hostile fans in Malaysia so they should be able to play under pressure.
Meanwhile, buoyed by a goal for Mainz on the opening weekend of the Bundesliga season, Japan striker Yoshinori Muto is ready to make his mark for Japan when the four-time Asian champions take on the United Arab Emirates in Saitama tomorrow, Kyodo reported.
Muto has returned to the national team fold for the first time since a World Cup qualifier against Cambodia last November, having spent a lengthy spell on the sidelines with a right knee ligament injury.
The former FC Tokyo striker came on with nine minutes to go and headed home Pablo de Blasis’s cross from the right in the second minute of stoppage time in Mainz’ 2-1 defeat to Shinji Kagawa’s Borussia Dortmund on Saturday.
Muto said he has no problem with his knee and is ready to start if called upon against the UAE.
“It’s been nine months [since I have been with the national team] and that’s a long time. I haven’t delivered results yet [for Japan] and I want to make sure I do that this time,” said Muto.