Dhaka, January 25: Bangladesh U16 girls’ team has arrived in Japan to play in the J Green Sakai tournament in Osaka. Although there is little expectation from them in terms of performance, this team has repeatedly excelled at these tours starting with their campaign in Tajikistan where they beat a number of central Asian countries to secure a spot in the top eight of Asia. AFC finals are set for later this year.

This crop of youngsters then formed the core of the national women’s team at the SAFF championship where Bangladesh became runners up for the first time. Not only was this outing the best ever performance but Bangladesh emerged as group champions ahead of India by dint of a goalless at the group level. The first time that the girls conceded was in the SAFF finals.

Looking past the single defeat in the whole tournament, the Bangladesh team had returned with a number of achievements to boast of.

It was this team that effectively constituted the national women’s side with 15 out of the 20-member SAFF squad. They might have lost the finale, but the girls have paved the way for a beautiful future in Bangladesh Women’s Football.

The youngsters performed from the first match on. With Pakistan absent, Bangladesh had to face Afghanistan and India. While the veteran captain, Sabina, scored five goals in the first match, young Shopna scored one. She also scored the lone goal for Bangladesh against India in the finals.

Back in 2010, the Bangladesh had started SAFF by defeating Sri Lanka 2-0 and started with a 3-0 defeat against India in 2012.

The girls had already qualified for the semis after defeating Afghanistan in the group stage. However, the match against India had troubled the side, as Bangladesh had lost all 6 encounters till then — 5-1 the last time. But this time the Bengal girls held the three-time champions to a goalless draw. Goalkeeper Sabina Akter, another veteran from the senior team, fended off several shots at the goal, while her younger compatriots — Shiuli, Shamsunnahar and Nargis — formed an almost impregnable wall in front of her.

The draw, a first against India, got the girls through to the semis in style as group champions.

The Indian side was ahead in both of physical strength and experience, but the girls managed to hold them with their defensive game. The defenders, being mere teenagers, had taken numerous hard falls tackling their more experienced opponents like Bala Debi, Sasmita Mallik, Kamala Debi and company, many of whom have been playing for longer than our girls had lived.

After 2010 and 2014, Bangladesh went on to the semis for the third time in 2016. This year, the earlier show put up by the Bengal girls raised hopes that Bangladesh would play the finals this time.

Conquering all hopes and dreams, Bangladesh did reach the finals with Shopna’s hat trick against Maldives.

The Maldives coach had said earlier that Bangladesh captain Sabina would be watched closely by the defenders, and that is what they did. But the youngsters proved to be more than a handful for the atoll nation. Shopna was at hand to fill in for Sabina, defender Nargis stepped up once and of course Sabina proved too good for the Maldivian defenders eluding them to score twice. Bangladesh reached the finals of the tournament, without conceding a single goal.

Only Nepal and India had done that twice before.

Defense, midfield or attack – Bangladesh proved to be better in all three divisions of the game. The statistics also proved the point. Bangladesh scored 13 goals — highest — in the tournament and conceded only 3, all of them in the finals.

In 2010, as hosts Bangladesh scored 11 and conceded 9. In 2012, they scored 2 and conceded 5, which resulted in a group-stage exit for the girls. In 2014, Sabina and her team scored 10 goals and conceded 8.

Forward Shopna had given the Bangladesh side hopes after equalising 1-1 in the first half against India. Skipper Sabina was also seen all over the field, be it up front trying to find the opponent’s net, be it assisting defenders fend off an attack.

According to coach Golam Rabbani Choton, the ‘small mistakes’ by Shiuli-Shamsunnahar in the first half, and goalkeeper Sabina in the second half had cost Bangladesh the title.

The SAFF championship clearly showed that the AFC qualifiers were no fluke and that these girls are only the first of many more successes in future.