Robert Rubcic is expecting positive results in his first test as Bangladesh’s football coach in the upcoming Asian Games Football which starts in the first week of November.
Bangladesh will take on Uzbekistan on November 7 in their opening match before taking on United Arab Emirates on November 9 and Hong Kong on the November 11.
Bangladesh stand at 145th place in the latest FIFA rankings with closest in the group being Hong Kong at 136th, while the other two teams are ranked below 100. But despite this huge gulf in the rankings, Rubcic thinks that Bangladesh can do well in the tournament if they approach the game with a positive mindset.
“We have respect for the teams we will play against, but we are not afraid of them. Anything can happen in soccer, it is not impossible for us to beat all those three teams,” said the 47-year-old Croatian as he watched the draw ceremony for the final round of the Federation Cup at the BFF house yesterday with his wife, Helen, doing the job of the interpreter.
Rubcic, who had been the former assistant coach of the Croatian national team, said they could take lessons from what New Zealand had done in this year’s football World Cup. Despite being a tiny nation, they drew against three big teams with defensive strategies and said he was looking to opt a similar strategy.
“We are not like Brazil or Barcelona, so we cannot play attacking football and still win against good teams. We will be having a well-guarded defence and put few men up front to counter these teams in the Asian Games,” he said.
As a build-up to the Asian Games, Bangladesh held a month-long training camp at the BKSP where Rubcic was present for the last two weeks before the camp was dissolved for the preparation of the clubs.
Rubcic thinks that he did not have enough time to prepare the team for the challenge. And he is a little bit concerned about the rustiness among the players of the national side after watching the matches of the ongoing Federation Cup.
“Players are technically not up to the standard and there is some rustiness among the players as well, since they haven’t played a competitive game for the last six months.
“But the side going to the Asian Games is young and they will be prepared for the challenges in time,” observed Rubcic.
