Under-23 team faces dearth of quality

While all focus is on how the national football team will recover from their frustrating SAFF Championship campaign in this month's Bangabandhu Gold Cup, the Bangladesh U-23 team have been preparing silently, plagued by a plethora of problems, for the eight-team tournament starting from January 8.

The game's governing body has decided to field the Bangladesh Olympic team along with the senior side in a bid to prepare them for next month's South Asian (SA) Games, but Spanish coach Gonzalo Sanchez Moreno is seemingly struggling to form a competitive squad as he faces a dearth of quality defenders.

The former Barcelona youth team player initially picked 25 players from 42 players through a three-day trial and yesterday he called six senior players, including four defenders, to make up the deficiency he has in the backline after releasing five players from the initial 25-member squad.

Six players -- defenders Rezaul Karim, Mohammad Linkon, Arup Kumar Baddya and Kesto Kumar and goalkeepers Ziaur Rahman and Sultan Ahmed -- joined the Bangladesh U-23 squad, which consists of players who have experience in the senior side like Imon Babu, Shahedul Alam, Atiqur Rahman Fahad, Masuk Mia Jonny, Rubel Mia, Yousuf Sifat, Abdul Malek, Toklish Ahmed and Aminur Rahman Sajub.

It is believed that the Bangladesh U-23 team can be an even stronger team once seven players -- defenders Yeasin Khan, Tapu Barman, Raihan Hasan, midfielders Hemanta Biswas, Sohel Rana and Jewel Rana, who are now the essential part of the senior teams -- join the squad after the completion of the Bangabandhu Gold Cup.

Today, Moreno will meet the team management to discuss how many seniors players will be included in the side for the Bangabandhu Gold Cup.

Despite a 1-0 win over Bangladesh Army in Thursday's warm-up match, Moreno felt that he needed a good right wing back in his squad to produce good results in the Bangabandhu Gold Cup, as well as a good back-up for the existing goalkeepers, said assistant coach Syed Golam Jilani, quoting Moreno. He also said that the head coach is seeking a centre-back like Reza.

Jilani informed that they had only three defenders -- Shakil Ahmed, Nahidul Islam and U-19 player Manik -- before four senior defenders were called up to strengthen the backline.

"We are aiming to go match by match in the Bangabandhu Gold Cup as we are expecting to put up a good show as a team,” said Jilani. “The players are also motivated to give their best because they know that good performances can open the doors to the national team for them.”

The Bangladesh U-23 team will start their campaign by taking on Bahrain in a Group B encounter on January 10. Maldives and Cambodia are the other teams in their group.