The tri-nation football tournament will kick off at the Dashrath Stadium in Katmanduat 5:45 PM (BST) on Tuesday. Hosts Nepal and visiting two teams Bangladesh and Kyrgyzstan U-23 will take part in the tournament.
Bangladesh will take on mighty Kyrgyzstan U-23 in the opening match. The Red and Green played four matchesagainst the Central Asian teams and lost all. In 2007, Nehru Cup, Bangladesh played against The White Falcon and lost by3-goal margin. In 2008 Bangladesh took part a friendly match with Kyrgyzstan but the result was the same. Lost to Kyrgyzstan by 1-2. In the FiFA World Cup Qualifying matches at home and away, Bangladesh were beaten by 1-3 and 2-0 respectively. So, it can said, history is not in Bangladesh’s favour.
The national football team worked on finishing and positions under the supervision of coach Jamie Day in their second training session at the DasharathRangasala Stadium on Sunday after a day of recovery.
Jamie believes that booters need to improve their finishing which would enhance their scoring abilities and increase the chances to win the match.
“We have done training in the morning and gym session this afternoon. We were focused on finishing. Boys want to take advantage of this opportunity. If you want to win, there is no option to score a goal. So, of course the finishing needs to be improved,” said Jamie after the sessions.
Bangladesh have been suffering the scoring crisis for a long time. To solve this, the coach added two fresh legs -- Md Jewel, Mehedi Hasan -- in the forward line of the 36-member Nepal-bound squad.
Forward Matin Miah, who recovered from injury and joined Mahbubur Rahman Sufil and Suman Reza to strengthen the forward line, said that they worked on finishing and positions particularly in the day's training session.
“I’ve missed the last FIFA, AFC qualifiers match, but I’m fully fit now. I’m doing training regularly under the coach. Today we’ve worked hard on finishing and positions during the training,” Matin said.
When the coach worked on finishing and other technical issues, goalkeeping coach Les Cleevely was busy with keepers’ weaknesses and mental health.
Bangladesh conceded five goals in their last international assignment of FIFA, AFC joint qualifiers in Qatar against the home side last December. Jamie included all three key keepers in his team -- Anisur Rahman Zico, SahidulAlamSohel and Ashraful Islam Rana.
Meanwhile, the captain Jamal Bhuyan left Dhaka for Nepal on Monday to participate in the tri-nation tournament.