Dhaka, Feb 22: Bangladesh and Kuwait are gearing up for the race which can earn them a place in the football tournament of the 2012 London Olympics with the first leg of the Olympic qualifiers getting underway tomorrow.
Bangladesh’s coach Rubcic hopes Bangladeshi youngsters are not put under any pressure as they strive to develop into international-calibre players.
Bangladesh will play their level best though they got only ten days for practice before departure as the players were busy with national league. “Boys will give full effort in the game though they had ten days for practice before leaving Dhaka,” said Croatian coach.
Bangladesh will take on Kuwait in the first leg of the Olympic Qualifiers Al Qadsya Club ground in Kuwait City at 18:20 (Local time, Kuwait).
Kuwait are probably one of the finest U-23 national teams of recent times and coach Maher Al Shammari believes his boys have the experience and pedigree to qualify for the 2012 London Games if they play to their potential.
In the training squad, Shammari has one player from the Gulf Cup winning team and also trainees who have had short stints with the national senior squad over the past year. The players have also become more confident after winning three practice matches with Japan, Yemen and Bahrain. They out played Japan 3-0, Yemen 5-0 and golf neighbor Bahrain 1-0.
On the other hand, the Bangladesh U-23 team had limited practice time as they were busy with national football league, played only one practice match against BFF eleven and did goalless draw.
Bangladesh will play in the difference atmosphere but the weather is not hot as their expectation. As the huge gaps between two teams strength, the visitors may follow defensive strategy with counter attack but the formation and eleven are still not announced. “Our team will play positive football and we will try to do our level best but you know, there is huge gap between two teams both technically and tactically. We should not compare with each other,” told assistant coach Titu.
In the FIFA ranking, Bangladesh (157) are 56 steps behind of Kuwait (101) who have won the Gulf Cup beating Saudi Arabia 1-0 last December.
However, Titu set their target to do something good, “You know Kuwait is much stronger than us but we will try to do something good. We may take counter attack strategy.”
Earlier, Bangladesh reached 20th February night in Kuwait and they did practice yesterday. Today, team will do practice in the venue ground to be familiar with the field.
The team will return home on February 25th and will play the home match against Kuwait on 9th March, 2011 in Dhaka.
The squad: Mithun Chowdhury (Captain), Md. Nehal, Md. Sahidul Alam, Saikat Bhowmik, Touhidul Islam Siddique, Md. Yousuf, Tawhidul Alam (Sabuz), Shaikh Alamgir Kabir (Rana), Choumrin Rakhine, Md. Monaem Khan Raju, Shahedul Alam Shahed, Md. Habubur Rahman (Sohag), Md. Naimur Rahman Shahed, Md. Linkon, Md. Mintu Shekh, Yeamin Ahmed Chowdhury Munna, Uttam Kumar Bonik, Mohammed Shakawat Hossain Rony.
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