Glum booters warm up

The way police with guns surrounded the ground at the Jessore Police Line gave an impression that a foreign team were preparing themselves for the Bangabandhu Gold Cup. But in realityit was the Bangladesh national football team who were having their second-day practice session yesterday afternoon ahead of Friday's opening match against Sri Lanka.

Such watchfulness from the police inside the protected area of the Police Line may refer to an environment of heightened expectations, however, the mood in the training session was not cheerful at all like it was in the SAFF Suzuki Cup camp. 

The booters looked gloomy and could hardly smile at each other during the two-hour long training session. Even there were no smiles on their faces when some 20 to 30 school boys, who basically resided inside the Police Line Staff Quarters, caught them for autographs after the practice session.

“The players are very upset after the frustrating performance in the SAFF championship,” said team leader Azmal Haque Tapan. “What I have seen from close in the last three assignments, it seems to me that the players are well disciplined and have no desire to get something big from football federation, but I have to admit that they have lack of ability to do something better on the pitch.”

Tapan, also a BFF executive committee member, believes that the players are still much behind in running since their World Cup qualifying match against Kyrgyzstan and it was one of the major factors for not being able to compete against teams like Afghanistan and Maldives in the SAFF Suzuki Cup. 

The team management and coaching staff have been trying to reinvigorate the players for the tournament and wanted them to put the SAFF disappointment behind by doing something better in the Bangabandhu Gold Cup.

“The boys are not at top level mentally but they are coming back to their natural condition. They look better today [Wednesday] compared to the last two days,” said head coach Maruful Haque. 

Maruful even lessened the burden from the shoulders of the players after setting the target to go forward match by match rather than setting up a big target of becoming champions. 

It was seen in the practice session that Maruful tried his charges to muster angular shots from inside-and-outside the box for almost half-an-hour even though the forwards and the midfielders floated most of their shots over the crosspiece.

Assistant coach Zulfikar Mahmud Mintu was busy with eight defenders to make sure they do not break the line in face of attacks from the opponents as the defenders looked to keep their line unbroken while the former national footballers whipped in crosses one after another from two flanks and the midfield.

Afterwards, the booters played a short-period game where Zahid Hasan Emily and Shakhawat Hossain Rony paired upfront before Nabib Newaj Jibon replaced unfit Emily. Hemanta Vincent Biswas is likely to miss the match against Sri Lanka as he has only recovered from fever.