As the TPL has reached the halfway stage we thought it was the perfect time to take a look at how the capital’s seven teams have been getting on and their hopes for the rest of the season. While the title looks to be a nailed on a formality for Buriram PEA, currently ten points clear of anyone else, second spot, and a place in the AFC Cup, as well as the two domestic cups are all well and truly up for grabs. In this first part we’ll look at how TOT, Army United, BEC Tero Sasana and Police United have done. In the second part, we’ll cover the big three of Thai Port, Muangthong and Bangkok Glass.

TOT
After going through a tumultuous pre-season, TOT-CAT F.C re-emerged as TOT S.C and seemed doom for the drop after losing most of their best players and their main benefactor. The clouds certainly didn’t lift after the side lost their first five matches, conceding thirteen goals and scoring none! Fortunately for TOT, their sixth opponent was Bangkok Glass. And BG did what they do best by putting in a poor performance against poor opposition and handing TOT their first win of the season. Including that game, TOT then took thirteen points from the next six games to climb out of the relegation zone and into  mid-table. Unfortunately, since that purple patch TOT have only managed one more win put them back into trouble just one place above the relegation zone. Still that in itself can be considered an achievement after that start. TOT have been defying the odds for years so we certainly wouldn’t bet against them doing it again.

Army United
Army raced out of the blocks and stunned the Thai football world by beating champions Muangthong 3-0 in their opening match. Brazilian striker Leandro was unstoppable in that opening spell when Army took eight points from their first four games; a run which even prompted fanciful talk of a title push! Since those heady days, Army’s form has been decidedly mid-table, still they won’t be complaining if that’s where they finish the season. After all they only escaped relegation in 2010 thanks to some impromptu play-offs and were widely tipped to go down this time around by many pundits.

BEC Tero Sasana
Tero started the season very strongly and looked like genuine top three contenders until the talismanic forward Terrathep ‘Leesaw’ Winothai suffered a broken leg. The Fire Dragons struggled badly after that and in the run up to the mid-season break they took just six points from seven games; a run which led to the sacking of English coach Peter Butler. That top three finish looks to be well out of reach now and another season of frustrating mid-table obscurity beckons.

Police United
Like a few Bangkok teams the Cops started strongly but have suffered a poor run of results going into the break. Just a couple of weeks ago, fans could have been forgiven for dreaming of a second-place finish and AFC Cup football coming to the Thammasat Stadium. Going into their fourteenth match of the season, the Cops had only lost one of their thirteen games, had drawn against leaders Buriram PEA and looked like the only team capable of challenging Chonburi in the race for second place. Fast forward to the mid-season break and the Police have dropped to sixth having lost four in a row, all against the teams around them: Muangthong, Bangkok Glass, Thai Port and Osotspa-Saraburi. Second place isn’t quite beyond them yet but they’ll need to hit the ground running and take points off the other top teams in the second half of the season.