Clicky
Sports, Football

Booters in Jakarta to play FIFA friendly


Published : 28 May 2022 09:25 PM

Led by Jamal Bhuiyan Bangladesh national football team including coaching staff and officials reached safely Jakarta, Indonesia on Friday and looking forward to their upcoming matches of FIFA friendly and Asia Cup.  

Bangladesh national team contingent, who left Dhaka at the early morning on Friday for Jakarta, are going well and had their first practice session yesterday at the Stadium Gelora Bandung. 

Bangladesh team, on their way to Kuala Lumpur to play Asia Cup Qualifying round matches will play a FIFA friendly international match against the hosts Indonesia on June 1. 

Bangladesh team is scheduled to leave Jakarta for Kuala Lumpur on June 2 when their Asia Cup qualifying round competition will be held from June 8-14. 

Bangladesh national team coach Javier Fernandez Cabrera, who went Indonesia after having eight practice sessions, saw some setback before to leave for FIFA friendly and Asia Cup, as the team is missing five vital performers due to their injury problem including the national striker Nabib Newaz, who was ruled out ahead of starting the camp due to disciplinary issues. 

So Cabrera could not go with his full strength, though the Spaniard before to leave Dhaka, expressed some of his solace in a press meet when he looked happy with the boys’ passions – “The commitment and responsibility of the players have been fantastic. What we have been developing in eight training sessions is that the intensity was very good and enough to achieve the objectives we have.”

Might be it’s his belief on his boys’ dedications and the enthusiasm to do the duty towards the nation, but reality is that the absence of the experienced players like Tarek Kazi, Masuk Miah Jony, Sumon Reza, Matin Miah, Nabib Newaz Jibon and stopper-back Tapu Barman, team will suffer much. 

Cabrera however told, “Sazzad Hossain is proper nine, we have other Sufil, who can play in number nine. We have players like Maraz Opi who can play as false nine or second forward, so we don’t have any concerned with forwards.”

The coach targeting the Asia Cup qualifiers, took the FIFA friendly against Indonesia a preparation match and want to go step by step when he said, “Indonesia match is a preparatory game. For us, Indonesia fits very well what we are going to face in Malaysia, so the match is going to be a probe if we are going to be ready to develop the game plan in Malaysia. Our main objective is to prove ourselves that we can compete against Indonesia and that’s going to be a great boost for us for Malaysia.”  

“I think we will go step by step and I think it is possible for the team to create long term objectives and need to focus ourselves, and what we want to do in every single day and let first focus on Indonesia how we perform against them and then hold our option in the qualifiers and Indonesia friendly game.”