Bangladesh head coach Lodewijk de Kruif urged for more international friendlies in order to fine tune the national football team for future challenges.
Bangladesh football team drew 2-2 with India at Goa on March 5 and arguably were deprived of a win as a goal was disqualified in the last minute of stoppage time. “I feel happy with the way Bangladesh played, it was a free flowing and a pressing game. The combination was new as there were a couple of new faces, with one-two-three touches and had very good positional play. Our young players, five of them are under the age of 20 and they showed what they can do. If Bangladesh play these type of matches regularly, the improvement will be evident,” said de Kruif.
Talking about the conceding late goals against India on two occasions, de Kruif said, “Many goals are scored in the last 10 minutes everywhere in the world because one of the teams loses concentration or they don’t have the ability to chase every ball.”
Meanwhile it was a hectic return for Bangladesh as the team had to wait for five hours at the Mumbai airport to avail the flight to Dhaka. It was sleepless night for whole the team.
Assistant coach Saiful Bari Titu said the whole of the coaching team were pleased with the mode of performance, “Lodewijk de Kruif gave the message to the national players that if any players think they are invincible in the team it would be wrong idea, everybody has to put their best to keep his place in the national team. Playing for the national team is a subject of pride and it is not weighed by money.”
Titu said playing on a good pitch also was important. “The pitch was very good for fast paced football and the players enjoyed it. Good pitches are important for good football,” he said.
Asked about Sunil Chettry’s late strikes against the team, Titu thought Chettry‘s fitness mattered. “He is no doubt a charismatic footballer, I think he never fell short of stamina. It was the same all through the match. Maybe our defenders lost the concentration as they felt tired in the dying minutes, we will work on this” said Titu.
