Korea proved to be the lucky ground of Bangladesh football again as the U-23 booters broke the 28-year old jinx in Asian Games football beating Afghanistan U-23 1-0 at Incheon yesterday.
Back in 1986, Bangladesh beat Nepal 1-0 in Seoul episode of Asian Games with ace forward Sheikh Mohammad Aslam scoring the decider in the 48th minute. It was the last match for Bangladesh after three identical 4-0 losses against Japan, Iran and Kuwait. Bangladesh’s first Asian Games football win however was registered in 1982 in New Delhi when the Red and Green beat Malaysia 2-1.
It is interesting that Bangladesh, who started to play in the Asian Games football from the tournament’s edition in Bangkok in 1978, did not draw any match till date. Though Bangladesh did not participate in the editions 1994 and 1998, in the last 28 years they were unable to register a win and never qualified for the second round of the Asian Games football.
However, Bangladesh now have a golden chance of progressing further in the event as they face Uzbekistan on 18th September and Hong Kong on 22nd September.
Uzbekistan is definitely a team far ahead in the standards and Bangladesh, coached by Dutchman Lodewijk de Kruif, should concentrate on putting their best against Hong Kong. However, it should be mentioned that Hong Kong beat Bangladesh 4-0 in their last face-off in 2010 Asian Games held in Guangzhou, China.
