Bruzon sets sights on SAFF final
Interim head coach Oscar Bruzon declared that he would come out of the defensive strategy deployed by British coach Jamie Day in the upcoming SAFF Championship, which gets underway on October 1 in Maldives.
The Spanish coach was introduced before the media yesterday, five days after the announcement of his appointment in place of Jamie, who left Bangladesh yesterday morning.
The 44-year-old coach disclosed a 26-member preliminary squad with the inclusion of Nigerian-born Bangladeshi Eleta Kingsley, who is still waiting for clearance from FIFA and AFC to represent Bangladesh. Later in the day, Abahani's young defender Mohammad Hridoy was added to the squad, making it a 27-member team.
Abahani winger Jewel Rana, who was ignored by Day despite his brilliant performance in the Bangladesh Premier League, was recalled by Bruzon. Alongside Suman Raza, Rana was the top scorer among the local players in the league.
Apart from Jewel, defender Tutul Hossain Badsha, goalkeeper Ashraful Islam Rana, defensive midfielders Atiqur Rahman Fahad and Manik Hossain Molla were also recalled in the preliminary squad, which will be trimmed to 23 members before national team fly out for Male on September 28.
Of the 23-member final squad that played the Three Nations Cup in Kyrgyzstan earlier this month, goalkeeper Mitul Marma, midfielders Rahbar Wahed Khan and Tahmid Islam were dropped while 20 others were picked by Bruzon, who has set his sights on reaching the final of the SAFF Championship.
"I told my club that I am a winner and play to win, not to avoid world number one, or to play defensive, or to play scared. The reality is that all of us are thinking of the possibility of going well. I am here to play in the final of the SAFF Championship. So I am not going to hide it," Bruzon said during his presentation at the Bangladesh Football Federation headquarters.
"We are going to play with a 4-3-3 formation which is the continuation of what we played for Bashundhara Kings. All of the players know about the formation and I feel the players are going to gel as quickly as possible," Bruzon added.
"Regarding the rivals, the reality is that we are the second bottom team of the tournament and are ahead of Sri Lanka and we can win against Sri Lanka. The reality is Maldives and Nepal can beat us, draw us and we can also beat them, so we are going to do what is possible to beat them. India is a higher ranked side and let's see what happens against them," said Bruzon, who also picked all his coaching staff of Bashundhara Kings alongside the national team's fitness trainer Ivan Razlog.
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