Another 3-0 defeat

The Bangladesh under-23 football team opened their Asian Games campaign with a 3-0 defeat against their Uzbekistan counterparts at the Pakansari Stadium in Bogor, Indonesia yesterday.

A fantastic header from Uzbekistan skipper Zabikhilo Urinboev in the first half, and goals from Dostenbek Khamdamov and Ikromjon Alibaev after the break settled the one-sided affair in favour of the former champions.

The men in red and green would look to salvage some pride when they take on Thailand tomorrow before ending their group-stage campaign against Qatar on August 19.

Bangladesh's relatively new coach Jamie Day had spoken of the players' improvement in their fighting attitude in the build-up to the event, and the players did show some fighting spirit but were yet unable to stop their far superior opponents from running away with another 3-0 victory.

This is the same scoreline that Bangladesh conceded against Uzbekistan in the group stages of the last two Asian Games. Bangladesh, however, conceded bigger-margin defeats against the Uzbeks at national and age-group level in the past.

The men in red and green were under the cosh right from the get go, but goalkeeper Ashraful Islam Rana -- one of the three over-aged players -- bailed them out quite a few times in the opening quarter of an hour. However, he was helpless when Uzbekistan skipper-cum-centre-forward Urinboev timed his run perfectly to finish off a move with a glancing header in the 23rd minute after some excellent work down the right flank by right wingman Alibaev.

Bangladesh forward Mashuk Mia Johnny poked home a throw-in two minutes later, but another Bangladesh player was adjudged to have committed a foul during the build-up to that effort.

Jamie Day's charges, playing in a 4-2-3-1 formation, looked to regroup and had a passage of play in the final ten minutes when they had strung a few passes in the midfield and played the ball to the three attacking men in Johnny, Saad Uddin and Biplu Ahmed, with Mahbubur Rahman Sufil playing as the lone centre-forward -- but there was no end result to those efforts as the tall and stocky Uzbek defenders were too much to break down.

The players from the Central Asian nation were so much in control in the first half that they enjoyed 74 percent possession and had five shots on target against none from Bangladesh.

The second half was the same story for Bangladesh, if not worse, as they failed to find a foothold in the game. Uzbekistan's pacey attacks resulted in two more goals -- Khamdamov's powerful shot from inside the box in the 57th minute followed by Alibaev's excellent finish nine minutes later.

Bangladesh's coach made three changes after the third goal, and one of the substitutes, Jafar Iqbal, made a darting run from the midfield towards the end of the match, with the Uzbekistan defenders in his wake, but the defenders had just enough gas in the tank to cut off Iqbal right on the edge of the box.