The Bangladesh Under-16 women’s football team will kick off their AFC U-16 Women’s Championship 2015 Qualifying campaign today being fully aware about the strength of their opponents. The hosts will take on Jordan at Bangabandhu National Stadium at 5pm.
Bangladesh went through the rigours of a 50-day long training camp under head coach Golam Rabbani Choton and played six practice matches against Narayanganj and the women’s senior team whereas Jordan trained in Germany prior to coming here for the qualifiers.
Choton said they are conscious about today’s opposition but stated his desire of putting up a positive display on the pitch. “Jordan are stronger than us as they are ranked 53rd while we are ranked 109th. Tomorrow’s (today’s) game against Jordan will be a do-or-die match for us. We conceded six goals against them when we met them the last time but I can assure that it will not happen again tomorrow (today). Our girls will play well,” Choton told the media yesterday in the pre-match presser.
Bangladesh skipper Monika Chakma echoed her coach’s tune but did express some doubt with their backline. “Winning and losing is part of the game but what we can do is give our best and try to put up a positive performance. The midfield and forward line are okay but the defence is not upto the mark yet. Hopefully it will be when we take the pitch tomorrow (today),” said Monika.
Jordan on the contrary are one of the favourites in the qualifiers and their coach Manar Mustafa Ahmed Fraij confirmed that their goal is to seal top spot. “Our main objective of this tournament is to secure first place. We are known in our region as a very strong team. We recently clinched two titles and we want to continue it here,” enthused Manar before adding, “We had a training camp in Germany where we played three matches. We won two and lost one. I believe this was a great help for our preparation.”
Meanwhile in the day’s other game at the same venue, Iran will face the United Arab Emirates at 2pm.
Between all the teams taking part in the qualifiers, Iran had the longest training camp. Iran coach Shadi Mahini also targeted a place in the final round. “We had a seven-month training camp for this tournament. We went to Uzbekistan last month where we played three practice matches against them. Our main target is to qualify for the final round and we hope we will be successful here,” said Shadi.
The UAE, meanwhile, are rank-outsiders in the tournament as they are participating in an age-level competition for the very first time. UAE coach Samir al Andaluse said the qualifiers will be a springboard for the future tournaments. “This is a new team and the players are new. Most of the players are from U-14. We take this tournament as preparation for the U-14 tournament which Dubai will host. It will also help the team for the upcoming U-17 World Cup,” said Samir.
The other participant of the tournament, India, will begin their campaign tomorrow with the game against Iran. India head coach Maymol Rockey said they are not prepared to look beyond the first game.
“We practised for the last two months. We are now fully focused on our first game against Iran,” said Maymol.
Channel 9 will telecast all the matches live.
