De Kruif tired of recurring errors

Conceding goals in the dying moments or latter parts of a game has become a recurring problem for Bangladesh national team. It has been happening time and again, and happened most recently on Tuesday when Bangladesh surrendered an early lead in the dying moments during their 1-1 draw against Afghanistan in an international friendly.

During the early part of Lodewijk de Kruif's charge, Bangladesh were forced to concede a 1-1 draw in the 2013 SAFF Championship match against India. The same team later scored a stoppage-time goal to hold Bangladesh to a 2-2 draw in a friendly in Goa last year.

The trend continued in the latter part of 2015 and into this year. Having taken an early lead against Sri Lanka in an international friendly in Jessore last year, Bangladesh had to come out with a 1-1 draw due to conceding a goal from a free-kick in the second half. Then they went on to lose against Malaysia under-23 team through a stoppage time goal in the final of the Bangabandhu Gold Cup earlier this year.

This is a cause for concern for de Kruif as Bangladesh prepare for the Joint Qualifiers for the World Cup and Asian Cup where they will be facing the likes of against Australia, Jordan, Tajikistan and Kyrgyzstan in Group B.   

The Dutchman believes his charges might have picked up the bad habit of getting to a defensive mindset during their time orientation at club or youth level as he claimed he has never instructed them to play that way.

“We played very well with a lot of power and created a few chances in the first 26 to 27 minutes and scored a good goal on Tuesday,” said the Dutchman after the 1-1 draw against Afghanistan.

“But then it was again the typical Bengali behaviour. I pointed out to my players yesterday, day before yesterday and in the last two years that when they lead 1-0, they step back to start to defend instead of trying for the second or third. I have instructed them to try and make it two or three and kill the game there, but they are stepping back and making things difficult.”

The Dutchman believes the way to overcome this problem is a simple one. “It is very simple. They have to concentrate for full 90 or 90-plus minutes. I'm giving training and information on it but nothing is coming though. There are a lot of things to do and we can keep continuing the work,” said de Kruif.

The 45-year-old coach is however hopeful that his charges would do better against Kyrgyzstan on June 11.

“We have started (our warm-up campaign) with a loss and then the second one was draw. Let's hope the third one is a win (against Kyrgyzstan).”