Bangladesh head coach Lodewijk Darius De Kruif’ on Sunday said his team is eying holding second place in the group stage to reach the semifinals of the six-nation Bangabandhu Gold Cup International Football Tournament 2015, scheduled to be held in Dhaka and Sylhet from January 29 to February 8.
Addressing a press conference at BFF House on Sunday, he expressed his satisfaction over the team’s preparations and said, “Let’s say, we are second in the group stage and reach to semifinal.”
Terming the tournament as a big challenge as well as opportunity for Bangladesh football, Kruif said it is time to show we have a big team.
He also stressed that Bangladesh team will give equal importance to all opponent teams as soccer professionals.
Replying to a query, Kruif said, “It doesn’t make any difference our opponent is Under-23 or not, we always play to win, after each 90 minute’s match we want to earn three points.”
The coach assessed that the Malaysian team is ‘a well developed team’ in Group-A, and Bangladesh is on the right track as the team is in the learning process by playing international football events.
The coach also thought that Bangladesh team’s players are well prepared and fit for the tournament by virtue of their ongoing international level physical fitness training for three months at BKSP.
Echoing the coach, Bangladesh captain Mamunul Islam Mamun said, “Now our fitness is almost up to international standard and I’m satisfied that we’ve received such hundred percent international level physical fitness training.”
“We’ve the capacity to be number one in the tournament, we want to perform on the match day according to our fitness and tempo and apply the high-pressing football technique,” Mamun added.
The captain also expressed his gratitude to coach Kruif’s coming back here ahead of the tournament which, he said, would boosts up their team spirit.
Hosts Bangladesh (AFC ranking 34th) is placed in Group-A along with Malaysia (AFC ranking 28) and Sri Lanka (AFC ranking 36) while Group-B comprises Bahrain (AFC ranking 12), Thailand (AFC ranking 23) and Singapore (AFC ranking 30).
The grouping of the tournament was finalised in Melbourne recently in presence of the representatives of six participating countries.
Four matches – three group matches and one semifinal – will be held in Sylhet while the rest in Dhaka.
In the first group match on January 29, Bangladesh will face Malaysia at Sylhet District Stadium and meet Sri Lanka on February 2 at Bangabandhu National Stadium, Dhaka.
Ticket prices have been fixed Tk 100 and Tk 50 for VIP and Gallery respectively for the group stage matches while Tk 150 and Tk 80 for semifinals and final matches. For Sylhet, the ticket prices at the gallery has been fixed Tk 50-80.
Meanwhile, the official campaign of the tournament began on Thursday (January 15) with the unveiling of the tournament’s logo by Finance Minister AMA Muhith at a hotel in the capital.
Channel 9, a private television channel, will telecast all the matches of the tournament live. All the matches will start at 5:00 pm.
BFF vice-president Tabith M Awal, team manager Amirul Islam Babu and team leader Iqbal Hossain also spoke at the press conference.
