16th Asian Games, Guangzhou 2010
What’s wrong in soccer?
Bangladesh U23 football team were the first to leave the country to take part in the 16th Asian Games in China. Ironically, they became the first side to return home on Sunday night after an early elimination from the group stages with a disappointing performance that saw them finish bottom of the 24 teams.
Of the 25-member squad, 12 players and assistant coach Saiful Bari Titu returned on Sunday while the remaining players and the coach Robert Rubcic are scheduled to return today.
Bangladesh were drawn alongside Uzbekistan, United Arab Emirates, and Hong Kong in Group E from where all the three other teams qualified for the 16-team second round. Neighboring India also secured a second-round berth while the other two South Asian nations Maldives (17th) and Pakistan (22nd) finished above Bangladesh.
Bangladesh officials had expressed hope of upsetting either of their powerful group opponents who are ranked much higher in FIFA rankings, but on field hardly offered any resistance against Uzbekistan and UAE going down by 3-0 margins before being eliminated with a 4-1 defeat against Hong Kong.
Assistant coach Saiful Bari Titu believes that lack of fighting attitude and professional approach among the players was a reason for going down easily against UAE and Uzbekistan, who he thought were much better in every department.
“To be fair, our boys could not cope with the pace and technique of the UAE and Uzbekistan players but played well against Hong Kong in terms of ball possession,” observed Titu.
Most of the goals Bangladesh conceded in the tournament resulted from lapse defending. However, Titu believes that the defenders were forced into make mistakes because they were under tremendous pressure as the forwards and midfielders failed to keep possession.
Head coach Robert Rubcic’s strategy of playing counter-attack was not materialised and the strikers could muster only six shots on target in three matches. Titu thought that boys lagged when it came to going on counter attack from a defensive mode.
Quoting Rubcic, Titu said the players are not habituated to run without ball and the game’s governing body in Bangladesh should look thoroughly into the youth development program.
Titu said that Rubcic emphasised on the need of playing more competitive matches against better sides to improve the standard.
