The Thai striker is still tormented by the punching of Dinh Trong
In the 57th minute of the match on March 26, 2019, Supachai waved his hand to hit Dinh Trong in the face and received a direct red card. After that, Thailand conceded two more goals and lost the final 0-4. This is also the biggest defeat of Thai football against Vietnam in the history of confrontation at all levels.
Nearly four years have passed, but Supachai has not stopped being obsessed with the red card in the above match. "I still think a lot, worrying about the past," Supachai told Ball Thai. "I regret that I failed to meet the country's expectations. It took me a year before I was 100% myself again after that red card incident."
The striker born in 1998 considers this an expensive lesson of youth, when he cannot control his emotions. Supachai admitted to being stressed under pressure in a stadium full of opposing spectators and the home team was leading 0-2. "Everything was compressed," Supachai said. "We didn't play well, we got provoked, we got booed so I panicked and did bad things."
On the way to leave the field, Supachai did not dare to raise his face. When a teammate walked into the dressing room after the game, he burst into tears and apologized to the team. "It's really bad, but I'm not the type to act like that all the time," says Supachai.
When he returned to the Buriram United club, president Newin Chidchob grabbed his hair and advised Supachai on the field. He said Buriram is home, and Supachai needs to try to forget what happened, stay away from social media and play in the next match to prove that he has overcome the pressure.
However, Supachai only scored two and five goals respectively in Thai League 1 2019 and 2020. By the season 2021-2022, he began to regain confidence and scored 14 goals in Thai League 1. In the 2022-2023 season, Supachai currently leading the list of top scorers with 13 goals. In all competitions, the 24-year-old striker scored 16 goals and provided 6 assists. Thai fans began to see the image of the striker replacing Teerasil Dangda - the 35-year-old legend this year.
Buriram is the cradle of the three brightest attacking players in Thailand at the moment. Besides Supachai, the team also has Suphanat Mueanta born in 2002 and Supachok Sarachat - a striker born in 1998 who moved to J-League 1 to play for Consadole Sapporo.
Currently, Buriram has a great chance to win the Thai League 1 for the third consecutive season when it is first in the group with 61 points, 12 points more than the second ranked team Bangkok United and seven rounds left. The team is also on the verge of a treble when it has reached the semi-finals of the FA Cup and Thai League Cup.
