Hockey team face Thailand with eye on top-six finish

Bangladesh will be looking to confirm at least a place in the fifth-sixth position playoff in the hockey event of the Asian Games with a win against lower-ranked Thailand today.

Bangladesh have been participating in the Asian Games' hockey competition since 1978, and their best results so far are four seventh-place finishes. The last time around they finished eighth out of ten teams.

A win today though will see them achieve their target and surpass all their previous achievements by finishing in the top six for the first time and among 12 teams.

The game begins at 3:00pm Bangladesh standard time at the Gelora Bung Karno Stadium Hockey Field.

Gobinathan Krishnamurthy's charges began their campaign with a 2-1 win against Oman, which basically sealed the deal. They then thrashed Kazakhstan 6-1 before suffering a 7-1 defeat against Malaysia on Friday.

Thailand on the other hand, lost all three of their games -- 10-0 against both Pakistan and Malaysia and 2-0 against Oman.

The head-to-head count between the two teams also makes Bangladesh the odds-on-favourites. Bangladesh last played against Thailand in the Asian Games back in 1998, when the men in red and green ran out 3-1 winners. They have also met regularly in the AHF Cup -- the second-tier competition in Asia -- where Bangladesh are the three-time defending champions. The most recent meeting between the two sides took place in the Asian Games qualifiers in Oman this March with Bangladesh comfortably winning the encounter 5-0.

Hence the men in red and green are confident about getting past the Thai challenge for a place in the fifth-sixth place decider.

“I don't ever remember losing against Thailand,” team manager Ehsan Rana said yesterday. “We've always beaten them in the AHF Cup or other tournaments. So we just want to go out and win with a big margin and achieve our target of playing for the fifth-sixth position.”

The coach reiterated his team's target after the match against Malaysia. “We came here with the target of a top-six finish and that will be achieved if we beat Thailand,” Krishnamurthy said.

“All our concentration is on the Thailand match. We will make a record if we beat Thailand, so we are thinking about that match only,” the Malaysian added, hinting that the final group game against eight-time champions Pakistan is currently not on the agenda.