Red and Greens win ‘closed door’ practice match

Bangladesh national football players warm-up prior their 'closed door' practice match against BFF XI at the Bangabandhu National Stadium yesterday. (Source: Mumit M)

Bangladesh national team registered a 1-0 victory over the BFF XI that comprised six foreign players in a practice match that was called as a “close door match” at the Bangabandhu National stadium yesterday.
The press people were surprised to learn that the Dutch head coach of the national football team asked the press to leave the Big Bowl as he did not want the media inside the venue. Not only the press people, but former footballers and a number of local coaches were also evicted from the venue.
However, the concept of “close door” was not successful as Bangabandhu National Stadium has a lot of alternatives to watch the match as it is surrounded by the many sports federations and the press people easily occupied those spots to see the match.

Bangladesh national team, however, put out a good performance dominating the scenario with greater possession. The speed was also notable as Emily and Mobarak missed sitters in the first half. Goalkeeper Mamun Khan also saved his team with two good saves on the half hour mark including a one-on-one situation.
Mithun Chowdhury, the substitute forward sealed the fate of the match with a 72-minute strike.
Later it was learnt that Lodewijk de Kruif has termed Bangladesh’s Malaysia tour out as he thought it will hamper the team’s last minute preparation. “The coach thought travelling to Malaysia will deprive the players of two days practice, so he thought it would be more convenient to focus on the practice rather than travelling to Malaysia. Bangladesh will fly to Nepal on August 25,” informed Abu NaeemShohag, the general secretary of BFF. Bangladesh was scheduled to fly for Malaysia on August 20.
With the cancelation of the Malaysia tour Bangladesh team’s match practice remained limited to two – one against a Thai club while the other was against Thailand U-19 team. Bangladesh was scheduled to play their last practice match against Malaysia U-23 on August 22 at Kuala Lumpur.
Writer: RM