Bangladesh U-16s not afraid
It was only thirteen years ago that a section of fundamentalist zealots under the banner of Islamic Oikya Andalan threatened to spoil the first-ever women's football competition in Dhaka. Though that competition was completed successfully, under the protection of police, women's football hardly took place in the years that followed. Then during the first regime of Kazi Salahuddin in 2010, women's football started to gain pace after being introduced at club level. Now it is being held regularly at the national level with participation of district teams, and the pace of progress has been furthered with the introduction of the Bangamata Primary School Gold Cup in 2011.
The current squad of the U-16 women's team comprises of some talented girls from Bangamata Gold Cup, and they have already achieved something that their predecessors never achieved: clinching back-to-back AFC U-14 Girls' Regional Championship titles and qualifying for the final round of the AFC U-16 Women's Championship, which also serves as the qualifiers for the 2018 FIFA U-17 Women's World Cup.
Having stunned illustrious opponents like Chinese Taipei and Iran in the qualifying stage to emerge group champions in September last year, the girls in red and green have gone through rigorous training for the last one year. The stage is now set for them to display their potential and their first test is against none other than defending champions North Korea, one of the powerhouses in women's football with FIFA U-17 and FIFA U-20 Women's World Cup titles to their name.
Considering the strength of today's opponents, the fear of being thrashed may be lingering in the minds of the Bangladesh players, but they are nevertheless upbeat about their prospects after having played a lot of practice matches (21 matches in Japan, South Korea, China and Singapore).
“They [North Korea] are also girls like us and there is nothing to be afraid of as we have already got rid of the fear after playing against teams from Japan, Korea and China,” said a determined captain Krishna Rani Sarker in Chonburi, Thailand yesterday morning.
The girls were in cheerful mood during a light training session in the afternoon as they built up to the most important match of their lives so far.
Midfielder Misrat Jahan Mousumi echoed the sentiments of her skipper as she said they are not afraid of the opposition.
“We got scared when we learnt that we would play against the world's top teams, but now we don't have any fear of them. We lost to South Korea U-16 team 6-0 in a practice match but we all tried our best to fight till the last minute because we felt that we were not losing; we were just playing against them. We know their strength and got prepared that way,” said Mousumi, who played in the holding midfield position.
The match between Bangladesh and North Korea will kick off at the Chonburi Stadium at 4:00pm (BST) while three-time champions Japan will face Australia at IPE Stadium at 5:00pm (BST).
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