Can Bangladesh’s ‘fandi’ foil Singapore’s Fandi?

A word that sounds similar across different languages can carry entirely different meanings -- a phenomenon known as a false cognate.

Take 'fandi' for instance. In Bangla, it's a common word (pronounced as phone-di) -- a scheme, a trap, often with a sly undertone. But in the Javanese vernacular, the same word means brave or courageous.

However, for the Bangladesh men's football team, this word refers to the biggest threat that lies in front of them in their forthcoming AFC Asian Cup Qualifiers match against Singapore at home on June 10, in the form of Singapore's most potent weapon, their star striker Ikhsan Fandi.

At the age of 26, Fandi is a legend in the making in Singapore, who marked his return from injury with a brace against Maldives in a friendly match on Thursday.

The fit-again forward proved his worth in his return match, brilliantly heading home twice from two set pieces as Singapore completed a 3-0 victory over the Maldives -- their first win in seven games.

For Singapore, who are 161st in the FIFA rankings, the match against Maldives (164) was a preparatory game before taking on Bangladesh (183), who also recently played a friendly game against Bhutan (181) and won 2-0.

Under Japanese coach Tsutomu Ogura's 4-5-1 system, Fandi is the target man and, with 20 goals to his name in 39 national team appearances, he is likely to keep the likes of Bangladesh centre-backs Tapu Barman and Tariq Raihan Kazi on their toes come June 10.

Fandi, who plays in Thai League 1 for former champions BG Pathum United, represents an attacking threat up front which Bangladesh, even with their many overseas reinforcements, lack.

The arrivals of Hamza Choudhury from England, Shamit Shome from Canada -- expected to debut against Singapore -- and Fahamedul Islam from Italy have bolstered Bangladesh's midfield, but the absence of an ideal target man at the front is still keenly felt.

Interestingly, Singapore also has a few naturalised players of their own, like Korea-born midfielder Song Ui-young, Denmark-born Jacob Mahler and Greece-born Zikos Chua.

With all four teams in Group C of the qualifiers -- Bangladesh, India, Singapore and Hong Kong -- sitting with one point each after one game, the upcoming match will be crucial for both Bangladesh and Singapore.

Fandi, who missed out in Singapore's first match in the qualifiers, a goalless draw against Hong Kong, opined that his side cannot "underestimate" Bangladesh despite being the higher-ranked side.

"We cannot underestimate them [Bangladesh]… But I believe we have what it takes to get a good result there," Fandi was quoted as saying by Channelnewsasia.com.

If the charges of Bangladesh coach Javier Cabrera want to secure a full three points against Singapore, the backline and the defensive midfielders has to sync well to handle the pressure from the Singapore frontline, especially Fandi. The Bangladesh fans would be hoping that whatever Cabrera's 'fandi' is to stop Fandi, it does the trick.