Football

Aminul Haque will lead Bangladesh against Uzbekistan in tomorrow's 2007 Asian Cup qualifier against Uzbekistan after the Bangladesh Football Federation named the goalkeeper new national football captain yesterday.

Aminul succeeds Arif Khan Joy, who announced his retirement from international football after Bangladesh's previous international, against Qatar last month in Doha in the ongoing qualifiers.

Aminul, who was injured and left the field after conceding one goal against Uzbekistan in Bangladesh's opening match of the qualifiers, lost his place to second-choice Biplab Bhattachariya in the next match against Hong Kong. But the Muktijoddha Sangsad custodian, arguably the best in the country, reinstated his position for the two home and away games against Qatar.

"Having played so many

years for the national team, it is like a dream come true," said Aminul to The Daily Star yesterday.

"It is like a reward for me and I feel great. My career is fulfilled now because every athlete

dreams to lead his country," said the agile custodian, who made his debut in 1996 as a 16-year-old.

"For a team like us, goalkeepers shoulder huge responsibility because we often lose big. Now leading a young team means more responsibilities because

most of the senior players have recently retired.

"But I am very happy to see the youngsters' performance in the camp. They are very serious, especially to make a place in the first eleven and this healthy competition ignites us to be more competitive."

In reply to a question, Aminul said that he was happy with the team's preparation for last few days for the Uzbekistan match.

"We lost 5-0 to Uzbekistan in Tashkent but that will not happen here. We know although it is a home game, we are not favourites. We want to hold out fort first but still, we want to play good football to satisfy the home fans," added Aminul, who missed Bangladesh's SAF Games triumphant party in Nepal in 1999 due to injury but won a champion's medal when Bangladesh lifted the SAFF Championship at home in 2003.

Uzbekistan will arrive in Dhaka this afternoon for the fifth round match, which will be held at the Army Stadium in Banani tomorrow at 3pm.