A clearer reflection

Bangladesh's fighting performance against Japan in their AFC U-16 Women's Championship was a clearer reflection of the girls' natural game said head coach Golam Rabbani Choton after Bangladesh went down 3-0 to the three-time champions in Thailand.

"The girls broke down in the first match thinking of playing against the world champions [North Korea]. After that match, the girls were eager to prove the point that they were not as bad as the scoreline against North Korea suggested. And today [Thursday] they started confidently and played their own way," Choton said at the post-match conference yesterday.

Choton believed that the girls had learned from their mistakes in the previous match.

"The girls really played well and confidently till the 90th minute but they conceded goals due to some silly mistakes. But it is important for us to learn and improve match by match," added the coach, who believes tightly marking two Japanese players in the second half helped them not conceded any goals after the break.

"The strategy in the second half was the same; to play our own game. But the girls were told not to give any space to number 14 [midfielder Chihiro Ishida] and number 17 [midfielder Momoka Kinoshita], who were building up the game. And they did that well in the second half to keep the score sheet clear," Choton explained.

He also admitted that playing against Japanese teams as part of their preparations helped them put up such a brave performance.

"We know their playing style as we visited Japan twice. Besides, we analysed the match between Japan and Australia," he said.

He reserved special praise for goalkeeper Mahmuda, who thwarted numerous chances, and Choton named her as the best player on the night.

Mahmuda, who conceded only two goals in the qualifying stage, was also praised by Japanese coach Kusunose Naoki.

"After a 3-0 lead, our girls tried their best to score as many as they could in the second half to take the lead on goal difference against North Korea. But they did not do it because of Bangladesh's backline and goalkeeper, who played very well under the post," Kusunose said.

"The Bangladeshi defenders were also very good and our players failed in their attempts to break the defence, but I am still pleased that they beat Bangladesh and secured three points."

Meanwhile, Australia suffered a 7-0 defeat to North Korea in the day's second match and with two successive defeats, both Bangladesh and Australia have been eliminated from the group stages. They will meet each other on September 17 in an academic affair, while North Korea and Japan will play to decide the group leader on the same day.