Hosts warm up well

Hosts Bangladesh should enter the Hero Asia Cup hockey tournament with a bit of self-belief after notching up a 2-1 win over Japan in a warm-up match at the Maulana Bhasani Hockey Stadium yesterday.

Milon Hossain and Ashraful Islam struck one goal apiece before a youthful Japan pulled one goal back in the 50-minute practice match where the Japanese looked relaxed yet dominated the game after having arrived here in the early hours of Sunday.

Interestingly, Japan, after conceding the second goal, played the last 20 minutes without their goalkeeper, yet managed to pull one goal back by converting a penalty corner. Bangladesh never beat Japan in competitive matches in the recent past even though they had held Japan to a draw in the 1985 Asia Cup in Dhaka.

Beating Japan in the practice match is something Bangladesh can take inspiration from to show their worth in the eight-team tournament starting from Wednesday.  

Though Japan dominated the game with better ball possession, Bangladesh also showed their fighting spirit and went on attacks collectively and came down together to defend. However, there was an apparent lack of cohesion in the midfield, thanks to the absence of veteran Kamruzzaman Rana, who is ill.

“Even though we won the match, we could not play according to our plan. Our strategy was to have better ball possession but the boys failed to do it. Technically, Japan shuffle their players upfront that leaves defenders in a puzzle and the boys could not mark them properly,” coach Mahbub Harun said analysing the performance.

“Positive things were that the boys showed their mental strength not to lose the match before the start. I think the boys overcame the fear and showed their fighting attitude throughout the two halves,” said Mahbub.

“We will be facing Pakistan in the first match. If we could have had better ball possession in the practice match, we could have played the first match confidently. However, we will work on this for the next two days,” continued the former national player.  

Harun's counterpart Siegfried Aikman was not bothered about the result and believed his charges would be different in competitive matches.

“We had eight days of preparation.  We have selected a young team keeping an eye on the 2020 Tokyo Olympics. Few players are 28 years old, but most of the players are 20 to 21 who just finished university. Some of the players have no experience,” said Aikman, who took charge of the team in March for the second time.

“We want to dominate with possession and we also want to get results. Today we dominated the game but did not get the result which is something we have to work on,” Aikman opined.