Grameenphone Super Cup
Jamal, Brothers kick-off marquee tourney
Sheikh Jamal Dhanmondi Club will be looking to put their league’s match-fixing allegation behind them and prove themselves out on the pitch when the Bangladesh League champions face Brothers Union in the opening match of the Grameenphone Super Cup today.
The match will get underway at 4:00pm at the Bangabandhu National Stadium with state-owned television BTV telecasting the match live.
There are only four hurdles to cross to win Tk one crore and that provides an easy conception of pocketing a lucrative sum but the path is defiantly not smooth for the participating teams as they will have virtually no way to recover from their mistakes if they slip in their respective openers.
The season’s curtain-raising tournament, the Federation Cup, gave all teams an opportunity and ample matches to combine their respective squads before the start of the Bangladesh League. The clubs also got some time and matches to judge their newly signed foreign recruits through the suddenly-inserted Independence Cup held in between two legs of the Bangladesh League.
But now, all squads are settled and all clubs know each other’s weak and strong points very well and will thus not want to take their opponents easily in the Super Cup especially when there is so much money at stake.
As Bangladesh League champions, Sheikh Jamal will be under pressure to prove themselves and put the allegations of match fixing behind though the investigation against them is still on-going.
On paper and in performance, Sheikh Jamal are far better than Brothers Union as the Dhanmondi-based outfit has defeated the Gopibagh-based outfit twice out of three meetings that they have played this season.
However, Sheikh Jamal toiled hard in their last meeting of the league to come from behind to play out a 2-2 draw to earn their required one point to emerge as new champions in the professional football league.
“As Bangladesh League champions, we want to prove ourselves again winning the Super Cup and we will give our maximum on the pitch,” said Sheikh Jamal’s Sri Lankan coach Packeer Ali yesterday.
“All the players are motivated and fit for the game as there are no injury problems which we faced during our last league match against Brothers and we hope to begin the tournament on a positive note,” said Packeer adding that they have been preparing for the Super Cup for almost two weeks.
Sheikh Jamal have already proved themselves in the tournament format after playing the Federation Cup final where they suffered a 5-3 defeat despite taking the lead twice. They were however eliminated from the Independence Cup semifinal with a single-goal defeat at the hands of ultimate champions Farashganj SC.
However, Sheikh Jamal will have the positive headache of choosing the starting line-up from a wider pool of players after irregulars like Zahid Hasan Emily, Zahid Hossain, Rezaul Karim and Atiqur Rahman Meshu all put up brilliant showings for the national team against Pakistan. Adding to that mix is the inclusion of promising striker Sohel Rana, and midfielders Khaled Saifullah and Sohel.
On the other hand, Brothers Union will definitely be looking for inspiration from their league encounter against Sheikh Jamal but coach Wasim Iqbal preferred to highlight Brothers’ record, especially in the tournaments.
“Look at Brothers Union’s tournament records. We always play well in the tournament rather than the league and the Super Cup is for anybody to win, although our first target is to qualify for the semifinals,” said the former national booter.
This season, Brothers Union put teams like Muktijoddha Sangsad and Sheikh Russel KC behind to qualify for the Federation Cup semifinal before suffering a 1-0 defeat at the hands of ultimate winners Abahani and the All Oranges outfit also played the Independence Cup’s quarterfinals but were eliminated 2-0 by Sheikh Jamal.
“After playing the league matches against Sheikh Jamal and Abahani, it seemed to me that we are a balanced side and are capable to produce a good result against both of them and if we can do that in the first match, our target of playing semis will be fulfilled 80 percent,” said Wasim, who strengthened his squad roping in five new players.
-With The Daily Star input
