We are improving continuously
Says U-16 women's coach ahead of Osaka tour
Bangladesh under-16 women's football team is continuously improving, thanks to the nine months of training camps and foreign tours they have already had, and they will improve further in the run-up to September's AFC U-16 Women's Championship in Thailand, hoped the team's coach Golam Rabbani Choton.
Choton was speaking at a press conference at the Bangladesh Football Federation (BFF) House yesterday, on the eve of the team's departure tomorrow for Osaka, Japan where they will play three matches against local sides.
“We have been having two to three training sessions a day since our camp began almost a year ago and the girls have been continuously improving. The team improved on each tour we made – to China, to Japan and to Singapore. This time it will be a camp for both practice matches as well as educational stuff because the players need to be mentally and technically strong before they take on top sides of Asia in the final round of the AFC U-16 Championship,” Choton said during the press conference.
The Bangladesh team will play three matches – two against high school teams and one against Sakai Academy team during their six-day stay at the J-Green Sakai National Training Centre in Osaka.
The skipper of the 20-member team, Krishna Rani Sarkar, felt the team is much more confident and prepared than before. “We have played there once before and played well against them,” Krishna said.
When asked whether the three sessions of training was putting a bit more load on the players, she said she felt the workload was justified as they would need the stamina and self-belief to face teams such as North Korea, Japan and Australia in the final round.
As part of the build-up to the championship, the Bangladesh team is likely to have another conditioning camp in South Korea before a final camp in Vietnam on their way to Thailand, informed BFF officials at the press conference, which was attended, among others, by women's wing chairman Mahfuza Akter Kiron, general secretary Abu Nayeem Shohag and technical and strategic director Paul Smalley.