Bangladesh U18 show a better brand of football

Thimphu, September 26: Bangladesh national head coach Andrew Ord and goalkeeping coach John Whittle see signficant improvement for the U18 team despite an unlucky loss against Nepal in the third match of the ongoing SAFF U18 Championship 2017 in Bhutan.

The Nepalese side took full advantage of a 10-man Bangladesh, following a red card, to ensure a 2-1 win on Monday evening.

Head coach Mahabub Hossain Roksy told journalists that despite the loss, the team is focused to go on and fight in the final match to keep their hopes alive for the championship.

“We cannot keep thinking about yesterday in order to do well in future. We can still become champions. For that, we must beat Bhutan, there is no alternative to that,” Roksy said.

He asked the people of the country to pray for the team and keep supporting the boys as they are trying really hard to bring glory for the country.

The U18 captain Tutul Hossain Badsha echoed his coach’s views, saying it is pointless to talk about the unlucky loss, and was determined to learn from the mistakes of the past and ensure a win against Bhutan.

“We are still in a position to lift the title. Please keep your faith on us and support our team like you have done so far,” Badsha concluded.

National coach Andrew Ord was pleased with the team’s performance and pointed to the team’s progress over three matches.

“The team is displaying tactical maturity. For example, there has been some very good pressing for sustained periods, which has caused every team a lot of problems,” Ord said.

He added “Also there have been some decent counter attacks and the boys are building up centrally rather than running down the sidelines and lofting aimless crosses into the box. This shows better cohesion among players.”
“The players have also shown good organisation in attacking set pieces.”