The Bangladesh national football team arrived in Dhaka on Friday after a disappointing exit from the group stage of the 10th SAFF Championship in Nepal.
Head coach Lodewijk de Kruif ranked his unit as outsiders before the tournament got underway and his evaluation was proved right as the national side failed to register a single win in three matches.
Bangladesh had dreamt of qualifying for the semi-final but eventually finished their campaign accumulating a solitary point after drawing against India and falling to defeats against Pakistan and hosts Nepal.
The Bangladesh Football Federation will be disappointed with the national side’s display after giving the coaching staff eight weeks to prepare the team for the regional football competition.
A two-month training camp was organised by the BFF at a cost of Tk two crore, but the red-and-green were unable to repay the faith of football’s governing body.
Questions were raised about some of the strategies employed by the coaching staff when a few footballers blamed intense training for the national team’s current plight.
‘We played well in the last match [against Pakistan], but there is no use in playing well as we failed to win the game. Actually, we did not get enough time to recover from fatigue,’ a young player said on Friday on the condition of anonymity.
National team manager and former national midfielder Iqbal Hossain denied that the players were tired and did not receive enough time for recovery.
‘We came to [Kathmandu] one week before the start of the tournament in order to recover from fatigue. I think the coach gave them enough time to recover,’ said Iqbal.
‘Maybe we don’t have the strength to beat the other teams or maybe fortune did not favour us,’ he added.
Iqbal also said that the BFF gave the coaches enough time to prepare the team properly.
‘The coaches got enough time to prepare the team. During the two-month period, I think the team’s strength rose from zero to about 70 per cent,’ said Iqbal.
National Teams Committee member Tabith Awal refused to make any comments regarding the team or the coach’s performance, stating that they will give their official reaction after discussing the matter with BFF president Kazi Salahuddin.
-With New Age input
