Anisur Rahman

The country’s footballing hopes were illuminated after a considerable time in the doldrums following the national team’s impressive recent performances against higher-ranked sides in the ongoing Joint Qualifiers of the World Cup and Asia Cup. Under the guidance of British coach Jamie Day, the booters provided glimpses of hope of restoring Bangladesh football’s glory days, but their performance in the just-concluded South Asian (SA) Games brought them back to the same old reality.

It was not because a Bangladesh Olympic team featuring 16 national players failed to regain the gold medal in Nepal, but instead the brand of football they exhibited during the region’s biggest sporting extravaganza has become a major cause for concern.

Day was least bothered with talks of the gold medal because he never promised it. He told The Daily Star after the end of the SA Games that it would have been satisfactory had his charges reached the final, but also gave the impression that he was content with bronze.

Still, the poor performance in Nepal compelled the 40-year old to raise his fingers towards loopholes in the country’s domestic football philosophy for the first time in his one-and-a-half-year tenure.

He also came up with some strong recommendations for the betterment of football in the country and, as usual, defended his charges’ lack of goalscoring prowess.

“I think the first game [against Bhutan], we played poorly by our standards but we played much better in the other three matches and I’m pleased with the performances. We would have liked to play the final but it didn’t happen. I’m happy we got a medal. I would have been very disappointed if we had not,” Day said, summarising his opinion on the team’s overall performance in the SA Games.

Bangladesh forwards struggled throughout the SA Games as they netted just twice in four games. Day’s charges finished third in the five-team table with four points -- two defeats against Bhutan and Nepal, a win against Sri Lanka and a draw against Maldives.

And Day believed the problem with scoring goals will not change any time soon.

“The issue of scoring goals will always be a problem [for Bangladesh] unless we make changes.

“The changes I believe need to happen are foreign players being reduced to two per team [in the Bangladesh Premier League], [keeping] under-23 players in starting 11s and matchday squads at all clubs, a league season that runs in line with the international window and doesn’t change, and [improved] facilities and grounds.

Day also recommended that no international games be allowed outside the window so players get enough rest and time to recover and that younger players be fielded in a league “so they can develop their skills because they just train and never play”.

It was evident Day’s team are good on the counter against higher-ranked sides, but they are not fluent when it comes to attacking football against sides of similar strength.

“I would agree that when we play better teams than us, we are hard to beat. We don’t have much of the ball, which in a way suits us. But when we play teams who are equals, we have more possession but the problem is that our players don’t play in correct positions, [in domestic leagues] so they struggle with the ball in certain areas. They are also expected to win and that creates more pressure,” Day explained.

He also admitted that players from teams in other parts of the sub-continent are technically better.

“I think technically they [players of Nepal, Bhutan, Maldives, Sri Lanka] are better but that’s not our players’ fault. They haven’t been coached correctly as younger players and these others countries have academies from a young age.”

DAY’S RECOMMENDATIONS

Foreign players being reduced to two per team

Naming U-23 players in starting 11s and matchday squad for all clubs

A league season that runs in line with the international window

Improve the facilities and grounds

No international friendly outside FIFA window

Need to give players enough time to recover and rest

Need to provide the young players enough room in league to develop their skills