Rather than celebrating Christmas Joseph Afusi, the Nigerian coach of Sheikh Jamal Dhanmondi Club concentrated upon his training session at the club ground yesterday. With the seventh edition of the Bangladesh Premier League is just a day away to be kicked off, the professional coach kept his football commitments above all the parties and festivities. Splitting into two groups, Sheikh Jamal were playing a practice match in a Christmas day afternoon and Afusi was playing in one of the sides. The way he was running, passing and controlling the ball it appeared that the coach still can continue his career as a player.
Afusi started his career in Bangladesh as a footballer of Sheikh Jamal, then became a player-cum-coach and now he is the head coach of Dhanmondi outfits, the team that he helped win the curtain raising Federation Cup this month. In an interview with Dhaka Tribune, the Nigerian talked about his squad, team’s preparation for the Bangladesh Premier League, the fixtures and the growing competition in the league.
The league is set to kick-off in two days, is your team prepared? The team is in good shape. We are well prepared and we want to start playing from where we finished in the Federation Cup. The first match is very important and we have to play well in the first match to boost our confidence. It’s going to be a tough league and difficult because there are a lot of teams who have good players. However though they have done well in the Federation Cup, the challenges of the league will be different.
What is the injury status of the team ahead of the league? We have one or two injuries but I hope the players will be fit to play before the game.
Considering the standard of Bangladesh football, what kind of football Sheikh Jamal are going to play to entertain the crowd? I always profess the philosophy of keeping the ball, try to play the ball, try to entertain and also try to get points. Because if you play well and at the end you lose the game, it does not make any sense. We want to play well at the same time we want to win. I had the players capable of playing good football and now I have players capable of winning the game as well. So combining all the ingredients together, I believe, we will put a good show and win the title.
Sheikh Jamal have comparatively an easier opening fixtures and will play Chittagong Abahani, Brothers and Soccer Club Feni. Any thoughts on rotating the squad? No. I want to put the strongest team out there because this is league football. League means the more points you get then you become the first so we want get the maximum points and we want make it happen from the very first game. So it doesn’t matter who we are playing against, strong or weak teams, we need to earn three points.
How are you going to celebrate Christmas? Last year, I celebrated it with my family but this time the situation is difficult as there is blockade every day. I want to celebrate with my players. But having games in next three days make it difficult to celebrate the way we do because they also have to be ready for the game. So I think it would be a delayed celebration (laughs).
What is the strongest and weak points of you team? From the Federation Cup we have seen a lot of weak points and we also see some positive signs not negative. We need to score more goals and we also have to work on conceding fewer goals. Midfield has to keep the ball more and we have to work on it as well.
What team do you think is the biggest competitor in the league? No team is small. Abahani, Muktijoddha, Sheikh Russell and Mohammedan, they all are good teams and are ready to make the life harder in the competition. Most important thing is to keep focusing on playing good football and win the game.
