When the Bangladesh football team left Dhaka for Bengaluru about a week ago to compete in the 2023 SAFF Championship, very few people anticipated that they would be able to get past the group round.
The lads in red and green belied all of the pre-tournament assumptions with a fantastic performance before losing a thrilling semifinal match against Kuwait at the Sree Kanteerava Stadium yesterday. The match was full of back-and-forth action throughout.
Even though Bangladesh was defeated in the game by a score of 1-0 and gave up the game’s sole goal deep into the first half of extra time after the conventional 90 minutes failed to break the tie, the result scarcely represented how valiantly Bangladesh fought against their considerably stronger opponents until the final whistle. And with a little bit of good fortune on their side, they could have been able to take the game into the shootout and win it.
There aren’t many people watching the football in this nation, which is a sad reflection of how formerly vibrant the sport used to be. Even when the national team competes in an international tournament, very few people make the effort to tune in to a television set since they have been accustomed to the team’s dismal performances and consistent losses over the course of many years.
The astonishing performance of the men’s squad in Bengaluru, the capital and largest metropolis of the southern Indian state of Karnataka, demonstrated that there is some light at the end of the tunnel despite this background and the recent financial controversy that rocked the Bangladesh Football Federation (BFF).
As a result of the participation of two Middle Eastern teams in this iteration of the SAFF Championship, which is a time-honored competition amongst South Asian nations, the competition’s prominence has been substantially increased.
In addition to that, it provided opportunities for teams like Bangladesh to compete against strong opponents. Kuwait is presently rated 141st in the world by FIFA, and the country’s national team competed in the World Cup in 1982. The ranking of Lebanon is 102nd. India, which holds the record for most victories at the South Asian Football Federation Championship with eight, now holds the 100th spot in the FIFA rankings.
The most recent FIFA rankings have Bangladesh at position 192, however their performance throughout the tournament belies their current standing. Bangladesh played far better than their current position indicates.
The accusations Since their first match in Group B, a loss to Lebanon by a score of 2-0, Javier Cabrera has continued to get better as each new game has passed. They were able to stave off the Lebanese up until the 80th minute, but then they made a crucial mistake that cost them the game.
Their next two games in the group stage were against fellow South Asian competitors Maldives and Bhutan, and each of those games featured incredible comebacks from down to culminate in matching 3-1 victories.
And their semifinal match against Kuwait was not only another game of David versus Goliath.
Even though Kuwait had a higher percentage of possession and a greater number of shots on goal, the match was never decided in a manner that was lopsided.
In the second minute of the tense match, Bangladesh had a golden opportunity to grab the lead when their youthful striker Sheikh Morsalin had a one-on-one scenario with the Kuwait goalkeeper but instead sent the ball straight at him. Bangladesh might have taken the lead.
In the first half, a Kuwait team that was better in terms of ability and technique exerted significant pressure in search of a goal. However, the majority of their efforts were thwarted by a resolute Bangladesh defense. An ever-vigilant Anisur Rahman Zico, who was stationed in a rock-like position under the bar, was able to deal with anything that made it past the protective wall. In a last-ditch effort to get through, Kuwait made five substitutions in the first 45 minutes of the match, but none of them were successful.
The second half presented Bangladesh with a fantastic opportunity to break their scoring drought, but Rakib Hossain’s powerful right-footed shot from an acute angle hit the crossbar instead of finding the back of the net.
After an exciting first half and a quarter of an hour, Kuwait’s overlapping right back Abdullah Albloushi scored the game-winning goal when he had enough room to go down the right side of the box and then drilled a low right-footed shot into the top right corner of the goal with his right foot.
On the other hand, Bangladesh was not prepared to go down without a fight. They made a concerted effort in the game’s final 15 minutes to find an equalizer, but the goalkeeper for Kuwait, Abd Al Rahman Kameel, was able to thwart their efforts. He miraculously blocked a low shot from Rakib in the game’s final moments.
It was the third time that Bangladesh had met with Kuwait. The most recent time that these two sides competed against one another was at the 1986 Southeast Asian Games. Kuwait cruised to a 4-0 victory against a Bangladesh team that had several famous players from the era when football played on a more local level was extremely popular.
For the record, Bangladesh suffered their third consecutive loss against Kuwait with the loss that occurred on Saturday. However, despite the result, it is likely that this performance will be remembered as one of the most impressive in the annals of this nation’s football history.