It was a brave effort by all means; in front of a full house, something unseen and almost forgotten, Bangladesh football team played out a cliffhanger with Malaysia at the Bangabandhu Gold Cup Football Tournament final.
Unfortunately, it did not end the way we expected!
Everyone who saw the game will admit it was Bangladesh who deserved to win since match end stats show 60% possession for the home side. But, in games, like many events in life, the deserving often do not have the last laugh.
Sometimes, they are made to wait. For what I can’t tell you at this moment, but that is how life unfolds with its mysteries.
Perhaps to teach a graver lesson!
A stadium full of people and a nation were left heart-broken, but instead of giving in to complete dejection, we should also try to find the many positive sides of the whole tournament.
For Bangladesh, to make it to the final was also a bit of a surprise; one must say, shedding the prejudice and the blind belief. In football, eye-popping miracles don’t happen too often.
Looking at the overall performance of Bangladesh, a side which looked clearly nervous and clueless in the first match, picking up the pieces to end up in the final was achievement enough.
I said miracles don’t happen, but luck clearly takes sides, because if the curling shot from a Thai player in the semis did not hit the side bar, things could have been a lot worse.
The promise was to play in the semis and we went to the finals, coming from two goals down to come back with all force, giving the Malaysians a scare.
In the end, when a sublime header sealed it for the visitors as the stadium stood stunned, the lesson was written in bold: Our players need to be taught to keep the pressure on till the last whistle.
That is modern-day football; a whole match can be turned upside down in the final 10 seconds. It has happened many times, yet on the pitch, footballers forget it. Or shall we say our footballers forget it?
Whatever, the trophy has gone to the Malaysian side as far as competitive sport is concerned, but the winner is the game and the spectators who have proved once more that if Bangladesh can show some glimmer of hope, even at a very average/negligible Asian level, galleries won’t remain empty.
As I was religiously following each match of the tournament, memories of another international meet in 1985 came back. At that time, the President Gold Cup was held every year in winter with invited foreign teams.
As football was the main sport, games were played all the year round, with the national team never short of international match exposure.
It was a prestigious tournament that saw teams like Syria, North Korea, and Thailand take part and in the memory of the football aficionado, the win against a Finnish football club (courtesy Aslam’s hat-trick) still holds a fond place.
The Bangladesh green team, made of upcoming players, also made a mark in the meet, drawing 1-1 with Swiss Super League team of 1984-85, FC Vevey Sports.
The year 1985 was also significant for the high octane India-Bangladesh football final of the South Asian Games. I won’t be wrong in saying that two spectacular teams made of top class players, Aslam, Ashish, Kaiser, Ranjit, Johnny, Wasim, Mohsin, Abul from Bangladesh, and Shishir, Babu Mani, Krishanu De, Atanu Bhatyacharya from India gave a game that would be referred to countless times by South Asian football pundits for years to come.
Aslam scored with a sudden volley from the half way line, bamboozling Atanu Bhatyacharya – without doubt a top contender for the best goal by the player in an international match. Penalties ended hopes for the South Asian gold that year, but the message was clear – football was on the ascendancy.
Five years later, Bangladesh won the President Cup and several hiccups later, the South Asian trophy finally came in 1999 and then in 2003.
The recent tournament has shown that people love the game and they are willing to pour their hearts out when the national team takes the field.
The truth is, the feeling of almost invincibility on home soil for Bangladesh is no longer there, but it can be brought back if regular tournaments are held.
This time an international meet was held after more than a decade, which is disheartening for fans as well as players because unless the team is comfortable playing foreign sides, the confidence to win from impossible situations will never develop.
Everything said and done, we are happy with the team; they gave their best given an almost non-existent international calendar. The South Asian meet is coming up and for us that is the World Cup.
King of a region, no matter how modest the region’s footballing status, is the ultimate glory for us. This time, luck was not on our side but take it as a lesson – luck comes to those who concentrate till the last whistle. Congratulations to Malaysia, well done Bangladesh, and plaudits for the thousands of fans who dared to dream!
