U-17s eager to make a mark at home

Bangladesh's age-group teams have been haunted by failures in the SAFF championships but the boys in red and green want to banish that disappointment by producing a good result in Group E of the AFC U-17 Championship Qualifiers, which will get underway at the Birshreshtha Shaheed Mostafa Kamal Stadium today.

The hosts will face Singapore at 7:00pm after group favourites Yemen take on Bhutan at 4:00pm in the two Group E encounters.

Ten group champions and five best runners-up will join the hosts in the 16-team 2023 AFC U-17 Championship.

Since the introduction of the AFC U-16 tournament -- which often changes to a U-17 competition -- in 1985, Bangladesh have qualified for the tournament proper six times, the first time in 1992 and the latest in 2006.

But in the six editions from 2008 to 2018, Bangladesh have failed to advance past the qualifiers. More recently, the boys in red and green lost the SAFF U-20 Championship final to India, who also beat Bangladesh in the semifinals of the SAFF U-17 Championship last month.

Bangladesh's youth team comprises players from the BFF Academy, who have been training together for the past year and have even played together in the country's second-tier Bangladesh Championship League.

Asked how confident they were of qualifying for the AFC U-17 Championship proper -- which is far more competitive than SAFF tournaments considering the inclusion of Middle and Far-East nations --captain Mohammad Imran said: "First of all, we all have recovered from shock of the loss at the hands of India. That is in the past. Now, all of us that have been training for the past year and have a good bond and combination are fit and eager to play a tournament on home soil."

"In the past two weeks, we worked on rectifying the mistakes we made in the two recent tournaments, so we are confident of qualifying," said Imran, who also captained the U-17 side in SAFF Championship.

However, Paul Smalley, the head coach of the youth side as well as the Bangladesh Football Federation's technical director, was cautious of declaring a target. Instead, he pledged that the team would show improvement.

"We are looking forward to this AFC competition. The boys certainly learned a lot from the SAFF U-20 and U-17 Championships. We wish to continue the progress and development of the younger players. Everybody is looking forward to the competition," Smalley said at the pre-tournament briefing.

He also outlined three aims: improvement, learning, and ultimately results.

Smalley will certainly also want a good start against Singapore in the opening match, but Singapore coach Angel Toledano was also expecting a result against the hosts.

"I want the boys leave everything on the field, which is a bit faster, and focus on the game plan to get the best result possible against Bangladesh," the Spaniard said.

In their group, however, there is little chance to look past Yemen.

Nevertheless, Yemen is going to be the tournament's toughest side. They have already announced their intention to qualify after successful campaigns in East Asia and Saudi Arabia. They have previously qualified more than nine times.

Last time, Yemen put behind Bangladesh and Qatar to emerge as group champions, with two wins. Yemen beat Bangladesh 2-0 before Bangladesh beat Qatar 2-0 to finish as runners-up.