The Bangladesh national football team will leave Dhaka today for a brief training camp in Thailand where they will take part in two practice matches against the hosts although
the dates of the friendlies are yet to be confirmed.
The national footballers and coaching staff will depart at 11:00 am.
Ahead of the Thailand tour, national team’s Dutch head coach Lodewijk de Kruif was hopeful about utilising the preparation camp for the benefit of the players.
‘I want to thank the Bangladesh Football Federation for sending us to Thailand to have a very well-organised training camp over there. Hopefully we will have a very good eight to ten days,’ said Kruif at a press conference on Saturday.
‘When we are back, I think we will have another week or ten days to finalise the final squad for the SAFF Football Championship in September,’ he added.
Kruif selected 24 players in his squad including Reasat Islam, the Germany-based midfielder, who joined the national camp 16 days after it began.
‘We are leaving with 24 players. There is Reasat, who came lately from Germany so I want to give him a chance to show himself to the coaches and to the team,’ he added.
Kruif refused to disclose the details of his planning as he thought that it might work as a tactical advantage for the opponents and went on to express his satisfaction towards the work-rate of the players.
‘I am very happy with the attitude of the players because they want to learn and adopt the way we want to play. At the beginning I was concerned with the physical aspect of the footballers.
‘What we wanted to do was tackle this problem and that is what we are doing. We are trying to settle the physical problem. We are on a good way,’ said the Dutchman.
Kruif stressed that the Bangladeshi footballers will take some time to get used to the Dutch style of playing.
‘What I want to do is to employ the Dutch style of play but that will take time. The players are very enthusiastic, they believe in it because it is based on ball possession and attacking football,’ he said.
Like other coaches, Kruif desperately yearns to win football matches but he is emphasising more on preparation work ahead of the SAFF Championship rather than targeting wins in the practice matches against Thailand.
‘I am very interested in winning games because that is why we are working. But now, this period is for building up energy. I cannot deny the significance of the result but it is not the most important thing at the moment. The most important thing now is development work and getting ready for September,’ said Kruif.
Bangladesh will return home on August 5 after which they will clash against Pakistan in a practice match on August 13. The Pakistan national side will also participate in another friendly match, against a BFF XI on August 16.
-With New Age input
