Dutch coach Lodewijk de Kruif expressed his satisfaction with the fitness of the Bangladesh footballers after taking charge for the second time, albeit temporarily, yesterday.
With the third edition of the Bangabandhu Gold Cup just four days away, the 43-year old head coach arrived in Dhaka early yesterday morning and wasted very little time before starting work.
The Dutchman held a team meeting before the afternoon’s practice session. After training, De Kruif talked with the media, saying he is happy with the players’ fitness.
“The time is very short. What I have seen so far, the fitness of the players is in satisfactory level and we don’t have enough time to work on it as well. Now, I will work only with match situations and tactical aspects in the remaining sessions,” he said.
De Kruif’s arrival was deferred by a few days due to the passing away of his father recently. However, he informed that he was in constant touch with the national side.
“I have always been in touch with the players and coach (interim coach Saiful Bari Titu). I was briefed about the training sessions by Titu. The players also contacted me regularly over phone or facebook with their problems,” he added.
“I know every player in the team and I know what they are capable of. Every one of them is a good player. My target is to move forward by taking each match at a time and earn three points.”
De Kruif also spoke about Bangladesh’s opponents in Group A, Malaysia Olympic team and Sri Lanka.
“I watched the matches of Malaysia national team but never watched [their] age-level team. Though they [are] ranked higher than us in the Fifa rankings, anything can happen in football. Plus, we have home advantage,” he said before adding, “Sri Lanka are our familiar foes but there is no way to take them lightly. They also know Bangladesh team so they can appear as a different side in this tournament.”
Bangladesh will play their second practice match today against premier league opposition. The national footballers might also play a closed-door friendly against each other under the supervision of the Dutch coach prior to the tournament.
