When the prestigious King's Cup kicks off today, the Thai national squad will be carrying a massive burden of expectations with the home team fans hoping that their nine-year wait for the title will come to an end this weekend.
Thailand are scheduled to play their first match against Syria today at 8pm with Jordan facing the UAE in the curtain-raiser at 5pm at Rajamangala National Stadium. Both matches will be televised live by Thai Rath TV (32).
The winners of today's matches will qualify for Sunday's final while the losers will meet in the third-place play-off.
It was way back in 2007 that the 12-time winners Thailand edged Iraq 1-0 to claim the top honours. They finished runners-up to a South Korea U23 squad last year when the four-team 43rd edition of the event was staged in Nakhon Ratchasima, employing a single-league format.
At a pre-match press conference of the four participating teams, assistant coach Krairung Treejaksung yesterday confirmed that all the Thai players were fit for the tournament.
"We are ready to take on Syria in the opening game," said Krairung. "We don't have any injured players."
He added: "We have studied tapes of the Syrian team. They are a good team and they combined very well during matches, but we have worked out our tactics for the match."
"If we make it to the final, then we won't be worried about facing any team. However, we would like to play against the UAE as they are in the same group as us [for the final phase of the Asian zone qualifiers for the 2018 World Cup].
"We hope that the Thai fans will come and cheer the national team at the stadium. It would be a big encouragement for the players."
Ayman Hakeem, the Syrian head coach, said: "Our team have had some problems in preparing for this tournament because our domestic leagues have ended. There have been no games for the players to keep them match-fit.
"However, these are the best players that we have in Syria and we are looking forward to the match with Thailand.
"Although we lost 2-0 to Vietnam in a warm-up match yesterday [Wednesday], we were able to spot our weakness in defence. We must put on an improved show to beat Thailand. We cannot underestimate the Thai team at all because they are very good."
Earlier, Thailand head coach Kiatisak Senamuang commented: "I watched Syria play against Vietnam, but you can't conclude much from the game. They had just arrived and played immediately without allowing the team to adapt to the weather here.
"I believe after spending a couple of days in Bangkok, they will turn up stronger for the match against us. We cannot take them for granted.
"The Syrian team have some problems in defence as their four defenders found it difficult to mark the Vietnamese on counter-attacks.
"However, they have a good team work and can switch quickly from a 4-2-3-1 formation to 4-4-2 and go into the attacking mode. We would have to do our homework well for the match against them."
Kiatisak added that a light downpour can actually help the Thai team.
He said: "We are not worried about the rain as long as it isn't a heavy one that could leave the field flooded.
"Although our players are smaller in size, they have speed and on a wet field bigger players find it difficult to control their movements.
"I just hope that there won't be any rain so that we can have a good match. In case of a heavy rain, the opponents will have the advantage as they can use their height and go for air balls."
Under the event regulations, if a match ends in a draw in 90 minutes, no extra time is granted and a penalty shoot-out is called to end the stalemate.