The draw played a major role in Sri Lanka's path to the grand finale as they were pitted against comparatively weaker teams in the Chittagong half of the competition. India's decision to send their youth team perhaps eased the way of Sri Lanka, not even among the top teams in South Asia, who crashed 4-0 in an embarrassingly one-sided final.

And many felt that, Palestine, Kyrgyzstan and hosts Bangladesh -- who all competed to be one of the final pairing from Dhaka -- deserved to be in the last four.

During the tournament, organisers Asian Football Confederation (AFC) followed the FIFA model for an international tournament and deployed two technical study groups for Chittagong and Dhaka to analyse every match, the strength and weaknesses of the teams.

Bader A Jalil Shehab, a former Kuwait international and member of the 1982 World Cup squad who headed the group in Dhaka as AFC Instructor, admitted that the four teams from Dhaka were better equipped than their Chittagong counterparts.

"The groups here were stronger. There's nothing we can do about draws. But it is good for the teams because by playing stronger opponents, you can evaluate your strength and judge where you stand in Asian level. Not only that, you would know answers why a team like Bangladesh lost 6-1 to Tajikistan. The coaches have to evaluate, discuss and see the reasons and put a programme how to develop technically," said Bader, who first came to Dhaka in 1978 as a player of Kuwait during the 28th Asian Youth Football.

"We analysed all the teams, how they play, how they deal with the game, team formation, how they attack, how they defend, who are the key players, how they deal with setpieces. It's overall team and competition analysis.

Bader, who was youth team coach and the director of coaches and youth development in Kuwait for 12 years before joining, said they divided the teams in Dhaka in three levels -- Tajikistan and Palestine on top, Kyrgyzstan and Bangladesh at second and the rest in third level.

"The competition would be very useful for them, but it showed us that they need a lot to develop. The main thing I saw that the players were not well prepared. I mean not for this tournament, but I'd rather say the youth were uneducated. So, we have to work with these countries at grassroots and youth level and in coaching education and principles of developing football like administration, league, finance, media and communication.

He told that the AFC feels it as its duty to cooperate with the countries who do not have these facilities. "AFC will put the hands if the federations ask for help but they have to show that they are more willing than AFC."

"Tajikistan were the best and Palestine playing them in final would have been great. But in my opinion, Palestine did not deal with their quarterfinal well. They were out of shape and despite having three days' rest before match against Kyrgyzstan, they looked tired. I don't know why they did not recover, may be due to lack of exposure, discipline and education. It was clear how Kyrgyzstan were playing but the coach did not show any reaction or had any influence in the game.

Criticising Bangladesh's strategy and poor performance by the senior players, he opined that the type and quality of the players are not helping.

"Technically they are ok, average, but physically very weak. The organisation was not so good. Tajikistan were the stronger team and the hosts played an open game. If you go back all the games, Tajikistan always pressed for a goal in the first ten minutes and struggled when they failed. If you play compact or numerical against them, they show slow reaction. Bangladesh failed to do this and the best thing would have been to counter attack. Bangladesh were more quicker but when one player touches the ball once in 45 minutes, you have no chance.

"Still, Tajikistan are not ready to compete at higher level. Because of slow reaction, they face problems under pressure, like against Kyrgyzstan because the Kyrgyz coach knew his limitations and tried to use a way he could win. But for individual skill of Tajik players -- a good goalkeeper, a solid defender in Nosirov, four very good midfielders who are expert scorers -- helped them win the trophy.

"My advice to Bangladesh is to use a football pyramid, start at grassroots, then with youth development and work with coaches education and correct the situation in the clubs. I'm sure if they put the plan and work accordingly, you would see development day by day," added Bader.