Bangladesh football team’s long wait for an international match is all set to end Tuesday when they take on Laos in a Fifa friendly.
The men in red and green last played an international 17 months ago against Bhutan on October 10, 2016 when the former suffered a humiliating 3-1 loss.
Prior to their Laos game, Bangladesh flew off to Bangkok last week where they trained and took part in two practice matches – against Ratchaburi Mitr Phol Football Club Wednesday and Bangkok Glass FC Friday.
The Bangladesh booters lost the first warm-up game but won the second, riding on a brilliant hat-trick by Towhidul Alam Sabuj.
Bangladesh, ranked 197th, then traveled to Laos, placed 183rd in accordance with the latest Fifa ranking, Sunday.
The men in red and green underwent a practice session Monday ahead of the Laos clash.
Bangladesh head coach Andrew Ord on the eve of the game said, “The staffs have done everything possible to prepare the players for this game. We have treated the camps like a professional club environment; we have tracked and monitored everything that the players do. We started off with players from Chittagong Abahani [Limited] and Arambagh [Krira Sangha].Then some players were dropped .The Abahani [Limited] players came, then some players were dropped in Dhaka before coming to Thailand. So the players that we have now, the process has made them tougher and more resilient.
“Whatever we have practised so far, we have to implement it on the field. We have to execute our gameplan. We cannot throw away the game in any way which would just make things difficult for us.
“The mentality is way better than we first started. The players have tried hard and come out of bad habits which they had before. The good thing is I have 17 players who can all start the game now. In the beginning I didn't think I would get such a pool of good players. Now it's time to see who can strive more and make their place in the best XI. We started to do things properly and in the correct manner. Now we just need to perform in the field.”
Meanwhile, centreback Tapu Barman said, “We have trained very hard. We spent two weeks in Qatar. Then two days in Dhaka. After that we went to Thailand where we played two practice matches. Everyone is very fit now. We are taking this game very seriously. We hope to win and give the nation something to cheer about. We are yet to decide on our captain for the game. It will be decided [Tuesday].”
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