Bangladesh takes on Sri Lanka in the 1st position pre-qualifier match of the Islami Bank Asian Games Hockey Qualifiers at the Maulana Bhashani National Hockey Stadium at 3:15pm today.
With the top six of the eight participating teams ensured a slot in the Asian Games scheduled to take place in Incheon Korea in September, Bangladesh is already assured of a ticket there. A win in today’s match will see Bangladesh play the winner of the Oman-Singapore match in the 1st place decider tomorrow.
In the recent past, Sri Lanka has emerged as a tough challenger to Bangladesh as the track record of the last three matches show Bangladesh winning 5-3 in the AHF Cup, Singapore in 2012, drawinw 3-3 in the last Asian Games Qualifiers at Dhaka on 2010 and Bangladesh won the bronze medal decider of the 2010 SA Games 2-1 in Dhaka.
Bangladesh coach Naveed Alam looked forward to continue the scoring spree of the last match. “Our forwards scored two field goals in the second half against Iran and I think the forward line has regained the rhythm and the confidence with that, I hope the attackers do the same against Sri Lanka and I want early goals which will settle the nerves,” said Naveed.
Bangladesh’s drag and flick specialist Mamunur Rahman Chayan is expected to hit form in the match.
Sri Lanka will rely upon their young forward Lahiru Gihan Weerasooriya, who has demonstrated very good stick work while leading the attacks of his team. Jayratnam, the assistant coach of Sri Lanka however opted to keep cool. “We are not taking any pressure, we are not thinking about playing the hosts or something g like that, all we are thinking is to play our normal game, we have a young team and we will put our best for a win,” said the Sri Lankan assistant coach.
Chinese Taipei will play against Hong Kong China at 9:00am and Iran will face Qatar at 11:15am in the first two matches of the day. Winners moves to 5th-6th position decider and the losers play in the 7th-8th position decider.