New coach boosts up team's confidence: Matin

DHAKA - Winger Matin Miah said the team are boosted and

mentally motivated enough under the new interim head coach Oscar Bruzon.

  "The coach boosts up the players during the training session and when we're
playing like a strong team India, it seemed that India were not a big team
for us... The way he (Bruzon) trained us, our confidence level has raised
than before and we were able to play good football against Indian team... It
was really a big thing for us," Matin said to the pressmen during the team's
practice session today.

   "We’re trying to play as per the directives that our coach said and if
we've to continue like this way, the team will perform better in the next
matches," he added.

   Having come back from a goal down and one man short to secure a creditable
1-1 draw against India, the Oscar Bruzon men upbeat to carry the momentum in
their next match against the Maldives.

  Replying to a question, Matin said: "Maldives have good attacking side but
they are comparatively weak in defense and off course we want to take the
opportunity and I hope our forward will utilize the opportunity and we'll
take to the field to win the match against the Maldives."

   Bangladesh will miss the service of Biswanath Ghosh and Rakib Hossain in
the next match, but Matin thinks that it would not hamper the team's
performance because they have enough replacements.

   Bangladesh national football team's custodian Anisur Rahman Zico thinks
that they have been playing positive football and they want to carry it
throughout the tournaments.

   "Definitely India is superior in ranking than us but we created many
scoring chances against India and if we able to utilize the scoring chances
which we did against India, we hope we'll win the next match," said Zico.

   With 10-men, Bangladesh drew with India in the crucial match and Zico
thinks that this draw increased up their confidence level.

   "I think it's a very important to get points in such a tournament against
India... One point is important for us and our chances of playing in the
final will be brighten if we can win one among the remaining two matches...We
were in trouble if we lost the match against India...So, one point is very
big for us," Zico added.

   Meanwhile, according to a message received here from Bangladesh Football
Federation this afternoon that the team managers and coaching staff are
trying to keep the whole team mentally motivated after a fighting 1-1 draw
against India.

   Good news for Bangladesh team ahead of the Maldives match as Bangladesh
defender Rezaul Karim has recovered from the fever and joined the team's
practice session today (Tuesday).

   Ahead of the Bangladesh's third match against the mighty Maldives, the
Jamal Bhuyan and Co. completed the preparations at "Henveiru Training Pitch"
this morning.

  During the practice session, they divided into two groups and had their
preparations. One group of the players took part in the recovery session
while the other group took part in the regular practice session under the
supervision of the head coach Oscar Bruzon.

   The expatriate Bangladeshi fans are busy for collecting tickets ahead of
Bangladesh's next match against host Maldives. But they expressed their angry reaction as the organisers failed to provide enough tickets.BSS