Day, Jamal fault system

Bangladesh coach Jamie Day is apparently satisfied to have achieved the target he set for the players in the Three Nations Cup football tournament in Nepal, but sees no immediate change of fate for the team until the domestic structure is reformed.

The men in red and green suffered a 2-1 defeat against Nepal in the final at the Dasharath Rangasala on Monday. The two goals Bangladesh conceded in the first half were due to childish errors, and Mahbubur Rahman Sufil's late strike only reduced the margin.

"The target was to give some new players international experience and see if they are ready for playing at this level. We have achieved that during this week and reaching the final was a bonus," Day told The Daily Star over the phone yesterday.

"We achieved what we needed to from the tournament. I was pleased with the matches apart from the first half of the final, but we saw players lacked composure in games when there was pressure."

Bangladesh played the final with a vulnerable defence, which looked nervous staving off constant pressure from the Nepalese forwards. The outcome is that the coach will likely have to rely on proven campaigners such as Bishwanath Ghosh, Tapu Barman, Rahmat Mia – all three missing this tournament due to injuries or sickness. 

"There were two sloppy goals; they didn't pass the ball quick enough or with any purpose and did not create enough chances," said the 41-year-old coach urging the authority concerned to restructure the domestic league.

"I think the problem is never going to change. I said so many times that if we don't change the league structure and if we don't care for the local players playing in the right positions, it is never going to change. A player plays in four positions (in domestic league matches); they don't know how to run' don't know how to play as a centre-forward and we have been seeing this for the last 15 years. What changed? Nothing," rued Day.

Captain Jamal Bhuiyan was disappointed and apologised to the fans while identifying the weaknesses of the forwards.

"We could not win because we could not score and the reasons for that is the foreign players playing in attacking positions in our domestic league," Jamal said. "I just want to say sorry to the fans. As a captain I am really disappointed because we could not deliver in the final."

Jamal also lamented the childish mistakes in defence.

"We did not play well in the first half because of nervousness, having many new players in the squad even though I instructed them to play without pressure. They did not perform in new positions in front of a huge crowd. We made childish mistakes to concede two goals because there was no marking. We have to learn from this mistake and not repeat it in future," said the Bangladesh captain.

"I really feel sorry because it was a great stage and a great opportunity," said 30-year-old.