Bangladesh coach Lodewijk de Kruif is focusing on rectifying his team's technical and tactical mistakes rather than worrying about the result ahead of the national team's second practice match against Thailand U-19 at the Osotspa stadium in Bangkok today.
The national booters flew to Thailand to play two practice matches earlier this week as part of their preparation for the upcoming Saff Championship, which will be held next month in Nepal. They lost the first practice match 1-2 to the Thai club Osotspa Sarabury, who finished fifth in the last Thai premier league.
"These are practice matches and I am not concerned about the result. Rather, I am focusing on the technical and tactical and mistakes of the players. Tomorrow we will also focus on these aspects. These teams that we are playing are mature and well organized," said the coach.
Bangladesh will be without the services of their two key wingers - Zahid Hossain, who also missed the first match and Mobarak Hossain Bhuiyan - due to injury. Both players missed yesterday's training session. However, national team physio Yamali Muhammet was not worried about the injuries and was confident that the two players would return to playing fitness soon.
Skipper Mamunul Islam Mamun returns to the squad to bolster the midfield after recovering from an injury which saw him miss the first game.
Defender Ariful Islam said that they are trying to overcome their previous blunders and have learnt from the mistakes that saw them concede two goals against Osotspa Sarabury.
"They are very organized and strong team. We played with our plan but they played with maturity to beat us. We missed couple of chances which proved to be costly. But it is good for us that we have learnt from our mistakes and next time, we will try to overcome that," Ariful said.
Another defender Yamin Munna thought the team's coordination was improving as the player's became used to working as a unit. "Our defenders played for different clubs. So the understating did not come up so easily. But we are practicing for a month now so the bonding is building up day by day. We are trying to build up from the defence and the coaches are teaching us well," he said.