Game-time for booters
The Bangladesh football team will be looking to implement their training lessons when they take on Al Mesaimeer Sports Club in a practice match at Mesaimeer Training Academy ground in Qatar today.
The match is scheduled to kick off at 10pm (BST).
The Bangladesh team have been in Qatar for a two-week preparation camp for August's Asian Games and September's SAFF Championship and they will play their first practice match under English coach Jamie Day, who took charge last month.
Bangladesh played their last international friendly against Laos on March 27 under the guidance of Australian coach Andrew Ord.
Day has been trying to pick a right combination for upcoming assignments and the match against Al Mesaimeer SC is being considered as a platform for the 38-year-old coach to judge the ability of the players.
“We are expecting them [the players] to have hopefully taken on board what we have been working on in training regarding their shape with and without the ball,” Day said. “Everyone will play roughly the same amount of game time during the match.”
As most of the top Qatari clubs are currently outside the country, the Bangladesh team management only managed a practice match against a Second Division side, who have a Croatian coaching staff.
“They look like a very good side that have some big strong players, so it will be good for me and my staff to see how the boys cope against that in what I think will be a physical match. I am not worried about the result, we are just looking to see if they have taken on board what we have been working on,” said Day.
The coach also believes that he would be able to see the players' fitness which has been a concern due to the long gap in training since the match against Laos.
“We want to achieve some match fitness which is needed and the boys to have a game against a strong side, so we can see where we are at as a team,” added the coach.
Meanwhile, promising midfielder Hemanta Vincent Biswas joined the long injury list and the Bangladesh Olympic Association has been asked to replace him from the Asian Games-bound football squad.
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