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Day may still turn to seniors

Sports Reporter
e Despite the poor showing by the senior players against Sri Lanka in Wednesday's FIFA friendly in Nilphamari, Bangladesh's English coach Jamie Day wants to keep his faith on the senior players ahead of the SAFF Championship, beginning from September 4 at the Bangabandhu National Stadium.
“You always have to look at the positives. We had lots of possession but didn't do enough with it. I think the older players we know can play much better," Day told The Daily Star. It was certainly a slight shift of stance from the Englishman, who was very upset with the performance of the seniors in that 1-0 defeat.
"I think the boys who played in the Olympics (Asian Games] have put themselves in a strong position to start, the issue will be whether they have enough experience," the coach said with an air of uncertainty.
Day's boys in the Asian Games defended well and attacked on the break against comparatively stron-
ger opponents. He is very much aware that the roles will be reversed in the SAFF Championship, where his team would have to assume the role of the attackers, leaving his strikers with the uphill task of breaking the opponent's backline; something that the forward line of the senior team failed to do against Sri Lanka.
"Well, that's been an issue long before I arrived and won't change it in the next week. So, we will have to look at ways in the next few days on how we can try and combat that if it happens," Day opined.
While Day has only a few days to make up his mind about whether his side for the SAFF Championship will be a mix of senior and junior players, a few members of his Olympic team felt that the defeat against Sri Lanka should not be considered a shattering blow ahead of the next week's event.
"I watched the match at home. Actually I felt sorry after watching the team going down. The players from defence to attack tried from their respective positions but they conceded an unfortunate goal. I
think Bangladesh should have scored although there was misunderstanding in the attacking third," said U-23 striker Saad Uddin, who struck against North Korea in the Asian Games.
"I believe we will bounce back despite the defeat against Sri Lanka. We played really well in the Asian Games, so there is nothing to be disappointed about before the start of the SAFF Championship," the 20-year-old marksman said.
He also advocated the need for senior players in the team.
"The SAFF Championship is a big stage where experience matters and the team needs senior players to inject inspiration and courage to the youngerplayers."
Centre-pack Tapu Barman, one of three senior players in the Asian Games, where Bangladesh made it to the round of 16 for the first time, echoed Saad's sentiments and urged everyone to keep faith on them, saying they would not disappoint the nation in the SAFF Championship.
"Overall we played a good match but the finishing was poor," was
Tapu's explanation about the friendly match.
"I firmly believe that we should not give up hope because yesterday's match was only a friendly. Our main target is the SAFF Championship. The squad that played yesterday was also not our full strength side, so you all can still keep faith on us," said the 25-year-old, who formed a solid defence with Tutul Hossain Badsha during the Asian Games.
"I think the players were bit nervous against Sri Lanka. They didn't play any matches for a long period and they didn't have match fitness. They took some extra pressure because they knew they had to perform to get a place in the final SAFF squad," said Jamal Bhuiyan, who captained the U-23 team and also scored an injury-time winner against Qatar in the Asian Games group stages.
■ I believe we have a bright chance to perform well in the SAFF (Cham-pionship] if you compare the Asian Games team with the team that played yesterday [Wednesday]," said Jamal.