Ranking means nothing, says Singapore coach before Bangladesh match

Singapore head coach Tsutomu Ogura insists that ranking has nothing to do with result in football nowadays as he feels the gap between the Asian teams has reduced quite significantly in the recent past.

In recent weeks, Uzbekistan and Jordan have reached the FIFA World Cup for the very first time. 

As Singapore -- a 161st-ranked team take on hosts Bangladesh (Ranked 183rd) in a second round match of the Asian Cup Qualifiers tomorrow at the National Stadium, the visitors are most likely to start the game as favourites but the Singapore's head coach thinks otherwise.

"For me, ranking has no meaning. Our group is very open situation right now. It's more like World Cup situation as many new teams like Uzbekistan, Jordan who qualified for the tournament for the first time," Ogura told reporters during a pre-match press conference at hotel in Dhaka today.

"This is now the Asian football situation. Many countries are now in competition. Before there was a big gap but now it is very very close. Like Singapore, Bangladesh and many countries have qualification possibilities [for Asian Cup]," he added.

Ogura's realisation came after both first round games of Group C – Bangladesh versus India and Singapore versus Hong Kong – ended in goalless draws in March and it made both the second round matches crucial for all four teams. The Singapore coach said that they are only focusing on tomorrow's match as they want to go match by match in the competition. 

"Our group is now in a very competitive situation. Tomorrow's game is important. Qualification to Asian Cup is a long process. But for me, it's important to play game by game. We are very much focusing on tomorrow's Bangladesh game," said Singapore's Japanese coach.

Meanwhile, Ogura feels that the inclusions of expats like Hamza Choudhury, Shomit Shome and Fahamedul Islam will help Bangladesh go from strength to strength in the coming days while it will also give local footballer a good vibe.

"I don't know in details. But I knew a few players have come to play for Bangladesh. Not only Hamza, a few overseas players from Italy, England and Canada have also come to play. This also helps your national team," he said.

Defender Amirul Adli, like his coach, showed respect to Bangladesh same sentiment for tomorrow's big clash against Bangladesh.

"From what I have seen in the past few games, they (Bangladesh) are getting good results. They drew against India. It's not about Hamza Choudhury, it's about whole Bangladesh team," said Amirul.

"It's a good team and Bangladesh stadiums are always full with fans. So I feel it's going to be a difficult match but a very entertaining match…," he added.

Singapore have come to this part of the world after beating Maldives 3-1 in a recent FIFA Friendly match on June 5, ending their six-match winless streak. Out of those six matches, they could only draw twice and lost the other four games which included a 1-0 defeat to Nepal in March.

The two teams have previously faced each other only twice. In 1973, the first meeting ended in a 1-1 draw in Merdeka Tournament in Malaysia while in 2015, Bangladesh suffered a 2-1 defeat in a friendly match on home soil.