BANGLADESH Under-16 women’s football team ended as the unbeaten champion of Group C of the AFC U-16 Women’s Championship qualifiers when they thrashed United Arab Emirates 4-0 at the Bangabandhu National Stadium in the capital on Monday. They showed they can do and confirmed Bangladesh’s place in next year’s championship final round in Thailand with previous four straight wins. The girls maintained their hundred percent winning records in the tournament with the win in the latest encounter.
We join sports enthusiasts and organizers to applaud their success; which has invariably achieved pride for Bangladesh. Our girls outplayed their opponents in all occasions in the field. Their attack, defense and skills in the field facing the opponents were excellent. Bangladesh skipper and striker Krishna Rani ended the pre-final with the highest score of eight goals. We must say Bangladesh has already opened new horizon in global cricket and the debut of women football team as unbeaten champion in Asian pre-final game has added more feathers to our success as a rising nation in the world of sports.
It is a moment of pride for all of us as our young girls have accomplished a wonderful job. As so many negative events always give us pain, any success story at any level works as a booster for the nation. Bangladesh Under-16 Women’s Football Team has achieved its primary target; but there is still a lot to do. Bangladesh girls will have to face formidable challenge from stronger opponents in the final and for that they will have to prepare themselves properly. Regular arrangement of warm-up matches against stronger opponents can yield good result. Practice in team camp should continue without long break. There is no alternative to training.
The record of our National Football Team in international and regional tournaments so far is not encouraging. Major reasons of failure are lack of commitment, indiscipline, internal politics and casual attitude. Strong thrust for win is absent in the mindset of most players. No serious step we have ever seen in the past to overcome these limitations. But without discipline and dedication it is not possible to attain success. Football demands hard work and our young girls proved how success comes in the grip if dedication and unity of purpose inspire players to work together and carry out routine practice.
In our view the success of our teams in cricket has brought fame to the nation and football can equally prove as a highly potential sport to make Bangladesh proud. All these prove that we have big potentials. Now it is the responsibility of trainers, organizers and other policy makers how to cultivate it to make new success stories at home and abroad.
