Rezaul Karim Reza, who was forced to stay out of any footballing action for four months due to a ligament injury, impressed the national Dutch coach Lodewijk de Kruif during the third warm-up match yesterday. Reza returned to field in the semi-final of the Super Cup last month, but lack of match fitness kept the Sheikh Russell defender out of the national 35-member preliminary squad.
However, Reza managed to grasp Lodewijk’s attention with his brilliant show in the third warm-up match yesterday which earned him a meeting with the Dutchman at the Bangladesh Football Federation today morning.
The centre-back took the field for BFF XI against the national team at the Bangabandhu National Stadium where the Red and Green’s exhibited a scintillating performance in the first-half. Emily slammed a brace as the national fold won 4-2 scoring all four goals in the opening half. However, the last 30 minutes disappointed the Dutch coach as Championship League top scorer Jibon struck twice for the BFF XI to deny their opponents a clean sheet. Ariful and Sohel Rana scored the other two goals for the national side. Lodewijk was not happy with the performance from defenders Kasto and Nasir while at the same time he praised Reza.
“The number four player (Reza) of the opponent is a very good player. I didn’t see him play before because he was injured. We have other players who can perform over there (defence), but with performance of Kasto and Nasir in the last 30 minutes, nobody could be happy,” said Lodewijk de Kruif after the game yesterday.
“First 60 minutes were good. Normally they want to play long ball and I told them not to do that. They performed very well with what we trained and what we talked about in pre match meeting. They did what we expected.
“May be it’s a part of lack of quality or lack of concentration, I don’t know. They surprised me with their performance in the last 25 minutes. The first 60 minutes was very important and last 30 minutes was very irritating,” he added.
The Dutch coach also praised Emily and said, “The way we want to play and the tactical plans we have, it fits Emily wonderfully.”
After the second warm-up match Lodewijk said he would announce the final 23-man squad by Saturday or Sunday, but after watching the last half-hour of yesterday’s match, the Dutch hinted for bringing some changes to his earlier planned sqaud.
“I had an idea of making a squad of 23 or 24-man, but the influence of last 30 minutes, I had to think about it tonight when I sleep it over and maybe I can come to another decision,” he said.
However, the coach was satisfied with his attacking options and praised his forward line. “We have lot of options in front. And we have two wonderful players injured in Zahid and Rony.”
A 23-man squad for Saff Championship is expected to be announced today.