Bangladesh are desperate to overcome their dead-ball woes when they start their World Cup qualifying campaign with two back-to-back matches at home in June. The Bangladesh Football Federation in a meeting on Sunday has instructed the coaching staff to address the issue immediately as Bangladesh are seeking to make an impact in the long campaign. The man in Red and Green suffered a lot from the dead ball situation during their recent matches which included their heart-breaking defeat against Malaysia Under-23 team in the Bangabandhu Cup final at home.
Bangladesh conceded a similar goal from free-kick in the dying seconds against India in 2013 SAFF championship, which cost them a place in the semi-final.
The problem seemed to have affected the age group teams as well.
Bangladesh under-23 team conceded six goals out of eight from set pieces in the AFC Under-23 qualifiers at home to finish at the bottom in their respective group.
Having seen the team doomed by dead-ball in the recent matches, the BFF president Kazi Salahuddin asked national coach Lodewijk de Kruif to find out some solutions before their World Cup qualifiers against Kyrgyzstan and Tajikistan, scheduled on June 11 and 16 respectively.
‘Everybody knows it [set pieces] is a big concern and a big problem in our football at this moment,’ De Kruif told reporters.
‘We have to tackle it. We hired a goalkeeping coach, who is now busy with the goalkeepers and defense organisation. Our target is to improve in those areas.
‘What we will also do is to train our defense and midfield line to anticipate better and read the situation better as they did before,’ said the Dutch coach.
National team’s assistant coach Saiful Bari Titu observed that some national defenders like Tapu Barman, Yeamin Munna and Yeasin Khan repeated the same mistakes in the ongoing Bangladesh Premier League matches.
‘I have spoken to the players individually to try to indentify the mistakes,’ he said. ‘I think they have to think and give more concentration for not repeating the same mistakes in and out the field.’
BFF officials said they have asked the local referees to go tough on defenders if they appeared to have committed a foul in danger zones.
The BFF had observed that referees tend to go soft against the defenders fearful of repercussions from powerful clubs which often encourage the defenders for rough tackles.
However, the defenders can hardly get away without conceding free-kicks if they do the same mistakes in international football and as a result Bangladesh team suffers badly.
‘Referees often face criticism from defeated teams,’ said BFF referees committee chairman Badal Roy.
‘They are always in under pressure. Still we always instruct them to conduct the matches without fear or favour.’
-With New Age input
