Bangladesh head coach Jamie Day has excluded seven players from the Saff Championship squad while drafting the final roster for the Bangabandhu Gold Cup International Football Tournament 2018.
He brought in nine new players, including six U-23 players from the historic Asian Games 2018 campaign in Indonesia.
The Asiad youngsters, including attacking trio Rabiul Hasan, Jafar Iqbal and Matin Mia and right-back Rahmat Mia, made it to the senior squad, along with experienced centre-back Yeasin Khan and forwards Nabib Newaj Jibon and Towhidul Alam Sabuj.
Last season’s star young winger, Lt. Sheikh Jamal Dhanmondi Club Limited’s Javed Khan made it to the national squad for the first time ever while left winger Mohammad Ibrahim also returned to the side.
In pictures: #BangabandhuGoldCup trophy unveiled https://t.co/oaYkCSxqEI
— DhakaTribune (@DhakaTribune) September 22, 2018
The BFF announced the squad in the afternoon.
Day talked to reporters after completing Thursday morning’s training session at Bangabandhu National Stadium in Dhaka.
He said, “Obviously we need more goals and it is not just for forwards to score goals, it is for all players; the midfielders can score goals, defenders can score goals, something which we looked at before and we will also look for the upcoming tournament. The defense play well but we need to score goals in every way.
“If we start attacking too much, then we can concede goals against the better team who can avail the mistakes easily, so we have to make sure a solid defense, and at the same time we need to score goals by taking the chances we create.”
The team will leave the capital for Sylhet for the group-round matches Friday afternoon, before taking on Laos in their opening encounter on the tournament’s inaugural day Monday.
Bangladesh will face off against Laos as the Bangabandhu Gold Cup is all set to get underway on October 1 at Sylhet District Stadium.https://t.co/2jTNKR7EtG#BANGLADESH #FOOTBALL #BANGLADESHFOOTBALL #LAOS #BFF #BANGABANDHU #GOLD #CUP #GOLDCUP #BANGABANDHUGOLDCUP #BANGABANDHUCUP
— Dhaka Tribune Sports (@Sport_DT) September 20, 2018
Meanwhile, the teams will start arriving for the six-nation event from Saturday with Laos being the first to land in Dhaka, before moving to Sylhet the following day.
Palestine, Tajikistan and Philippines are scheduled to arrive Saturday while Nepal will set foot Sunday.
Exclusions from Saff Championship: Shahidul Alam Sohel, Saad Uddin, Nasir Uddin Chowdhury, Shakhawat Hossain Rony, Sohel Rana, Faisal Mahmood and Sushanta Tripura
Inclusions: Rahmat Mia, Yeasin Khan, Rabiul Hasan, Jafar Iqbal, Mohammad Ibrahim, Nabib NewaJ Jibon, Towhidul Alam Sabuj, Matin Mia and Javed Khan