The Afghanistan team that arrived in Dhaka last Saturday to contest the Fifa international friendly against Bangladesh tomorrow is a different side to the one that won the 2013 Saff Championship in Kathmandu exhibiting eye-catching football.
Ever since that title-winning campaign, as many as seven footballers have tendered their resignation owing to internal disputes within the team. In the absence of the seven footballers, the Afghanistan squad was mainly drafted with the selection of players who ply their trade in the German leagues.
The list of seven footballers who resigned on March 29 this year includes captain and the country’s most-capped player Zohib Islam Amiri and all-time top scorer Balal Arezou. None of the seven footballers were involved in Afghanistan’s friendly win over Laos last Friday.
Among other wholesale changes, German-Bosnian coach Slaven Skeledzic was named as the team’s head coach. Skeledzic previously coached a few youth teams in the Bundesliga and recently signed a five-year contract with Afghanistan. With the coaching staff mainly consisting of sports personalities from Germany, Skeledzic is slowly but surely rebuilding Afghanistan with his own philosophy.
“I have a philosophy and it is near to Barcelona and Borussia Dortmund, which is to attack and attack, have control of the ball, good possession, play fast in the forward-line. And, we want to dominate the opponents,” the 43-year old tactician told the media before attending a training session at Sheikh Jamal Dhanmondi Club ground yesterday.
“Many players came from Europe and many came from Afghanistan directly. Most of them play in Germany. I built a new team in three months and we want to practise more and more and grow up this team,” he said before adding, “Three players came from the Netherlands, one from Denmark, six from Germany, one from Vietnam and one from the USA.”
Skeledzic termed tomorrow’s friendly against Bangladesh as an important test ahead of their 2018 Fifa World Cup second round qualifying campaign.
“We want to grow up and this game against Bangladesh is very important for us to see the steps. We want to practise our philosophy and we want to prepare very good before our first game against Syria on June 11. That’s why we are here,” he added.
Despite Bangladesh’s 2-1 defeat against Singapore last Saturday, Skeledzic praised the men in red and green.
“Bangladesh are a very good team and well-organised. I think it was a draw game but Bangladesh lost. I noticed some good players like number 10 (Hemanta Vincent Biswas), 14 (Jewel Rana) coming in the second half and made something in the forward-line. They were also organised in defence,” he said.
The friendly between the Tigers and Lions of Khorasan will kick off at 4pm at Bangabandhu National Stadium tomorrow and Channel Nine will transmit the match live.
