Conceding goals in the dying stages of the game continued to haunt Bangladesh as the men in red and green were held to yet another 1-1 draw against Afghanistan in a Fifa international football friendly at Bangabandhu National Stadium last Tuesday.
And with the 2018 Fifa World Cup second round qualifiers just a week away, Bangladesh’s Dutch head coach Lodewijk de Kruif expressed his anger and dismay over a problem that has been bothering them for quite some time now.
Although shipping late goals is a common feature in the game of football, Bangladesh have been doing it regularly in the last two years.
In the 2013 Saff Championship in Nepal, Bangladesh lost to Pakistan and drew against India despite being in the ascendency and dominating large parts of their games. Bangladesh continued to suffer at the hands of India as the latter scored yet another late goal in a Fifa international friendly in Goa last year in March. Prior to the Afghanistan friendly, the most recent one came in the Bangabandhu Gold Cup earlier this year when Bangladesh undid all their good work in the final by conceding a late goal against Malaysia.
“We have to keep on telling them that they have to concentrate for 90 minutes and plus. How many times have we conceded goals in the dying seconds? I’m getting crazy of it,” said a disappointed De Kruif after the friendly.
Last Tuesday, Bangladesh grabbed an early lead through veteran forward Jahid Hasan Ameli in just the fourth minute of the friendly. At a rain-drenched BNS, the home side kept the visitors under wraps right until the 93rd minute when Afghan midfielder Ismat Shenwari thumped in the heart-rending equalising goal.
“We played very well until the 26th-27th minute of the game with a lot of power, creating chances and scored a good goal and then again, typical Bengali behaviour. I told my players many times before in the last two years that when you lead 1-0, what you automatically do is step back and go for defence instead of trying to look for the second goal,” said De Kruif before adding, “The problem is, always, in a game like this, the players are getting fatigued because of the pitch. And, also, 48 hours of rest that means they did not get enough recovery time. The body gets tired and they lose concentration.”
The 45-year old tactician however, pointed out some positives from the two Fifa international friendlies against Afghanistan and Singapore. “I was happy with the working attitude. They fought everywhere, not everybody in the same way, but most of them were fighting very hard. Positive and negative things are there but we have [seven] days to come up with a solution and see what we can do against Kyrgyzstan,” said De Kruif, alluding to Bangladesh’s opening home qualifier at the big bowl on June 11.