U-16 girls head into uncharted territory

The Bangladesh U-16 women's team leave for Thailand today to take part in the AFC U-16 Women's Championship with the optimism of putting up competitive showings against the world's top teams as well as bringing to notice Bangladesh's progress.

The girls in red and green will now face challenges from their illustrious opponents in Group B, which comprises holders North Korea, who are also world champions at the U-17 and U-20 levels, world number six Australia and world number 8 Japan.

Since qualifying to the eight-team finals after emerging as unbeaten group champions last September, Bangladesh have been toiling for the past year to close the gap between themselves and the top sides. They have played 22 practice matches against various teams in Japan, China, South Korea and Singapore as they looked to alleviate any nerves when playing against top quality opposition.

After putting in long shifts on the training ground, the girls have improved their levels of stamina and strengthened their technical, tactical and mental aspects as they steady themselves to embrace the immense challenge in the final round, which begins from September 10.

"The qualifying round was a test for us and we earned the ticket to Thailand after beating all our opponents convincingly. Since then the girls have laboured in training and practice matches with the motto of putting up a good show," said head coach Golam Rabbani Choton at a press conference at the BFF House yesterday.

"However we have been pitted against tough opponents, who are some of the top teams in the world, in the finals. The girls have improved technically, tactically and mentally and I believe they will put up competitive displays in Thailand, although we are an unknown quantity to other teams. I can say that Bangladesh will be tough opponents," he continued.

Japan and North Korea have been perennial finalists in the tournament, with either side featuring in all seven finals so far while four have been decided between them. Australia have not done quite as well but their best finish, fourth-place in 2009, is still far beyond what Bangladesh have accomplished.

"They are no doubt far ahead of us but we want to let them know that Bangladesh have also been improving. Our first target is to fight neck-and-neck and play the match to our strengths instead of defending all the time like we did in the practice matches during our tour to Japan, China and South Korea," said a hopeful Choton, who has been with this group of girls for almost four years.

Captain Krishan Rani Sarkar also promised not to give an inch, saying that they would be aiming to play competitive matches.

"We have been working hard for the past year and played some practice matches to get used to the pace of tougher opponents as well as to overcome the fear of playing against strong teams. However, we still feel a bit of fear going into the final round as the opponents are much stronger than us.

"At the same time, it is also pleasing that we are going to play the tournament which is also the World Cup (U-17) Qualifiers and we are ready to take this challenge. Please pray for us," said Krishna.

"Everyone dreams of touching the sky and we are no different. But we have to understand the reality, which opponents we are going to play. I don't know whether we can play at the same pace as those opponents, but we have the belief that we will play good football in all three departments," said midfielder Misrat Jahan Mousumi. "They are world-class teams and it will be a dream come true if we can secure a draw against any of them."

After the press conference, BFF president Kazi Salahuddin briefed the girls and termed them as the lucky ones since they will be playing World Cup Qualifiers [the AFC U-16 Championship also serves as part of the qualifiers for the FIFA U-17 Women's World Cup] directly, which no team from Bangladesh has done before.

"You should feel proud. After all, none of us could touch this milestone. There will be wins and defeats in matches and it will be a really tough tournament. Listen to your coach and guardians and let the world know that you can also play football," Salahuddin said.

TRIVIA

♦ Bangladesh will be making their second ever appearance in the seventh edition of the AFC U-16 Women's Championship.

♦ They previously played the inaugural edition in 2005, when they finished bottom of Group B, conceding 28 goals in three matches, including a 24-0 loss to eventual champions Japan.

♦ They lost their other matches as well, suffering a 1-0 defeat to Guam and a close-fought 3-2 loss to Hong Kong.

♦ Rouson Bolu and Hasina Bagum are the only two players to have scored for Bangladesh in the tournament proper. Two other Bangladeshis have scored, albeit for the opposition.

♦ In 106th place, the Bangladesh women's team are the second-lowest ranked team in the tournament. Australia are ranked the highest at 6th, followed by Japan in 8th, North Korea in 10th, China in 13th, South Korea in 15th and Thailand in 29th. Laos are unranked in the FIFA Women's Rankings.

♦ The Japanese are the most successful side in the tournament's history. They have won three titles and finished runners-up twice. North Korea are just behind, having won twice and finished second on three occasions.

♦ The North Koreans are the reigning champions. They defeated Japan 1-0 in the last edition's final.

♦ Each final of the six editions so far has featured either North Korea or Japan and they have faced each other in the final four out of six times.