Bangladesh national hockey team will start their Group B campaign in the 9th Asia Cup today against defending champions South Korea at the Azlan Shah Stadium, Ipoh in Malaysia.
The Asia Cup got underway on Saturday with Bangladesh’s group rivals India romping to a massive 8-0 victory over Oman in the opening game.The primary target of Bangladesh are to finish sixth, a position they held in the past before slipping to seventh place in the previous two editions.
Bangladesh were thrashed by Korea 8-0 and 9-0 respectively on the previous two occasions, meaning any defeat by a lesser margin would be deemed as success for the charges of Pakistani coach Naveed Alam.
Naveed, however, is confident that his team will give the Koreans a run for their money and a result with fewer goals should not come as any surprise.
‘Our specific target is to fight on. We will try to ensure a compact defence and make lesser number of mistakes and go on the counter-attacks,’ said Naveed on Saturday over phone.
Bangladesh played two warm-up matches since going to Malaysia in which a 5-0 defeat against Pakistan was followed by 3-1 win over Chinese Taipei.
The practice matches were crucial as the tournament is being held on a blue turf with a yellow ball unlike a green turf and a white ball which Bangladesh have got used to. Naveed said they have somewhat adjusted to the condition after the two matches in Malaysia.
‘It was hard to adjust to the playing condition initially especially with the blue turf and the yellow ball, but after two matches we have more on less adapted to it,’ said the Pakistani coach.
The match will be telecast live on Star Sports at 2:00pm.
Bangladesh will face Oman, their main challengers for sixth place, in their second match on Monday.
-With New Age input
