Day aims to earn points at home
National football coach Jamie Day is looking forward to securing some points from the home matches of World Cup Qualifiers as the boys in red and green will resume their campaign against Afghanistan at home in October.
"We have four tough matches of the World Cup Qualifiers ahead, three are home matches and we're looking forward to getting some points from those, which however are tough games but we need to focus on them and prepare ourselves accordingly," Jamie told reporters during an online press conference from England after the 40-year-old coach signed a two-year contract with the Bangladesh Football Federation on Tuesday.
Bangladesh are at the bottom of the four-team group with one point and they are supposed to host Afghanistan on October 8 before travelling to Qatar to play the away match on October 13. The boys in red and green are then supposed to host India and Oman in November.
Asked whether it is possible to secure full points against Afghanistan and India in the home matches, Jamie said that both Afghanistan and India are tough, higher-ranked sides but Bangladesh will not take the field to lose points.
"The matches against Afghanistan and India will be tough ones because they are higher-ranked sides but we don't have the mentality that we will lose the matches, rather we will be wanting to leave the field with some points," said Jamie, whose charges lost 1-0 to Afghanistan and surrendered a lead to play out a 1-1 draw against India in away matches.
Jamie still believes the six-week preparation is good enough to prepare his charges as he has been in touch with the players virtually for the last three months to oversee their progress as well as give them necessary tips to get ready physically and mentally for upcoming national camp.
The British coach is however a bit worried about securing the services of players from Bashundhara Kings, who will also resume the AFC Cup in late October. He said that he has already talked to Kings coach Oscar Bruzon about the release of their players.
"I really enjoyed the last two years and feel we had some really positive results and developments. The key matches for me were the Asian Games and World Cup Qualifiers' performances against India and Qatar. The slight negative was not making the final of the SA Games [with the Under-23s] in Nepal," Jamie said. "But I am really looking forward to the next two years and hopefully developing further."
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