Lodewijk de Kruif is expecting another tough game against Jordan on Tuesday as the Bangladesh team returned from Australia on Friday night with bitter memories from their 2018 Russia World Cup qualifier encounter against the Socceroos.
Known as the Chivalrous, 91st-ranked Jordan are the second favourite to progress from Group B and Bangladesh head coach De Kruif is well aware of his next opponent. Jordan landed in Dhaka yesterday evening.
Bangladesh, who lost 5-0 away to Australia on Thursday, trained at the Sheikh Jamal Dhanmondi Club ground yesterday where De Kruif said, “They have same physical behaviour (like Australia), very strong and fit. They have a high target from our group. They are a strong team with good players, good tactical plan and even I know their Belgium coach (Paul Put) from the past. I know a little bit what their intentions are. But we can't hide from the fact they are very strong team.
“We want to conquer them on our own way with good tactical behaviour and good tactical plan. We have three days to prepare ourselves,” said the Dutchman.
Red and Green's juvenile midfielder Hemanta Vincent Biswas has been ruled out of the clash against Jordan, but the coach is not worried as he believes “Emon [Babu], [Monayem Khan] Raju and [Atiqur Rahman] Meshu can easily replace Hemanta in that position.”
The Dutchman linked Jordan's approach to that of the Socceroos and explained why an attacking strategy will not work against their next opponent who are “almost” as speedy as Australia.
“When you play attractive, attacking football against Australia, it's a suicide. When you only think about attacking against Jordan, it is also suicide. I'm not committing suicide because that is not what I want from my team. We have to play to our quality and give some big attention in that area.”
Speaking of the defeat in Perth, De Kruif said, “I was not too happy with the left side for first 20-25 minutes. The pace of the game changed little bit after bringing in Raju. I think he played very good in the defence. There was no ball possession from us. When we got the ball they directly put pressure. That is our level at the moment.”
Meanwhile, Bangladesh Football Federation general secretary Abu Nayeem Shohag put paid to all the controversies surrounding the job of De Kruif and said, “The national team have a busy schedule from the next month onward. We have the World Cup qualifying matches in October, Pomis Cup in Maldives in November and Saff Championship in December. The reality is, it's really tough to appoint someone new before these tight fixtures.”
