Saad determined to get into playing XI
Ahead of next month's FIFA friendly match against Indonesia and the Asian Cup Qualifiers, 20 footballers of the national team's preliminary squad turned up to report to the team manager this evening at a hotel in Dhaka.
Bangladesh will play Indonesia on June 1 in Jakarta before locking horns against Bahrain, Turkmenistan and Malaysia in Asian Cup Qualifiers on June 8, 11 and 14 in Malaysia.
"I still don't know the style the coach wants to play but I will try to get back my position in the team though everything depends on the coach. However, I will try to give maximum effort in training to get into the team,"
Players who will be selected from Bashundhara Kings will join the squad after participating in AFC Cup in India. The squad will leave for Jakarta on May 26.
Coach Javier Cabrera will start training tomorrow afternoon at the Bashundhara Kings arena with 20 players as goalkeeper Shahidul Alam Sohel may miss training due to an injury.
"Sohel is likely to leave the camp after reporting when the coach and the physio take a decision about him," informed manager Iqbal Hossain.
The players are seemingly happy to return to the national fold after competing in domestic competitions.
"We are looking forward to shifting our focus on to international matches as we have plenty of time to get prepared ahead of the friendly match against Indonesia," said Sheikh Russel left-back Saad Uddin.
"Now we need to have good training in the coming days; then we can produce a good result in the friendly match," Saad said.
"We have been placed in a tough group in Asian Cup Qualifiers. Getting positive results against those opponents will be very tough. However, it is a good opportunity to get a friendly match against Indonesia, who are similar to our Asian Cup Qualifiers rivals; so the Indonesia match will help us get proper preparation before those big matches," said Saad, who was ignored in the national squad for March's FIFA friendly against Mongolia.
"I still don't know the style the coach wants to play but I will try to get back my position in the team though everything depends on the coach. However, I will try to give maximum effort in training to get into the team," said Saad.