ANISUR RAHMAN

As Bangladesh coach Javier Cabrera set his sights on the semifinal berth of comparatively tough SAFF Championship on the first day of the training session yesterday, the decades-long goal-scoring problem of the national football team is expected to play in the mind of the Spaniard.

The men in red and green could not get out of the group stage in the last five editions of the regional football extravaganza, and the upcoming 14th SAFF Championship is expected to be tougher due to the inclusion of two middle-east nations -- Lebanon and Kuwait.

Bangladesh, the 2003 champions, were drawn along with tournament’s top-ranking side Lebanon, two-time champions Maldives, and Bhutan.

To emerge out of the group stage, Bangladesh forwards have to play the vital roles since goal-drought in recent international matches has been evident of how the national football team badly suffered in those matches.

Under the guidance of Spaniard Cabrera, Bangladesh so far played 10 international matches in which they struck only five goals with forward Mohammad Ibrahim finding the opponent net twice, while forwards Rakib Hossain, Sazzad Hossain, and defender Tariq Raihan Kazi netted one goal apiece.

In the last edition of the SAFF Championship held in Maldives in 2021, Bangladesh forwards struggled heavily despite creating good opportunities before entering the final in the round-robin league basis championship. Bangladesh could score only three goals in four matches, with defenders Tapu Barman, Yeasin Arafat, and forward Suman Reza finding the opponents’ net.

Nevertheless, Cabrera will be expecting the forwards to fire on all cylinders to take Bangladesh to the last-four battle this time around. However, as a matter of fact, the forwards in his 30-member preliminary squad have been inconsistent in the nearly-ended season, where the foreign recruits played vital roles to decide the fate of most matches.

Interestingly, 30 members of the preliminary squad possess a total of 52 goals struck by 17 players in three competitions – Independence Cup, Federation Cup and Bangladesh Premier League.

Although the collective number of goals may give a good impression that the players have been in good form, 11 forwards out of 17 scorers had been inconsistent as most of them got more or less 20 matches to perform.

With the final 23-member squad yet to be finalised, Cabrera would definitely bank on the top-scorers but he would also pragmatically consider the in-form, promising ones to put an end to the long-sustaining unfruitful campaign in the regional football extravaganza, scheduled for June 21-July 4 in Bengaluru, India.