Bangladesh’s coach, Javier Cabrera, wants to see his players get better, but the men in red and green will probably just want to avoid embarrassing themselves in today’s World Cup Qualifiers match against Australia at AAMI Park in Melbourne.
The game will start at 3:00pm Bangladesh time.
The Socceroos are in great shape. They made it to the Round of 16 at last year’s World Cup, but lost 2-1 to eventual winners Argentina. They are ranked 27th by FIFA, 156 spots ahead of Bangladesh.
Before this odd match, the only question is whether Bangladesh can get back on track against a team that beat them 5-0 and 4-0 in the 2015 Russia World Cup Qualifiers.
The men in red and green got to Australia five days before the game so they could get used to the cold weather there. Cabrera taught his players how to play in low and mid-blocks to defend against attempts from Australia, which was physically and technically stronger, and to try to score on the break if possible.
“It’s clear that this is a huge challenge for teams like ours, so I hope we can win.” We should be able to avoid giving away too many free kicks or corners. “We are ready, but we will see how we do tomorrow [Thursday],” Cabrera said at a press meeting before the game.
“I hope we’ll get some chances. I believe we should try to be ourselves as much as possible. “That desire to play is what brought us here and gave us this chance, and I don’t think we will gain anything by changing that for a game,” the 39-year-old boss said.
Since the SAFF Championship in June and July, Bangladesh has been doing well under Cabrera. The coach wants to use what he learned from the match against Australia to help his team win their next two games, against Lebanon and Palestine.
Even though he knows it will be hard, leader Jamal Bhuiyan is confident that his team will do well and get a good result in front of Bangladeshi expats.
“I know it is going to be tough for us but we want to produce a good result,” Jamal told me. “The Bangladeshi fans make us happy no matter where we play in the world. They come from far away, do everything they can, and inspire us even more.” That’s why this game is so important. We want to show that Bangladesh is a good team with good players.
Graham Arnold didn’t get his whole team to train together until the night before the game, but the Australia coach is sure that they can keep up the high level of play that they have set.
“We’ve made our own rules.” Know that it’s a way of thinking and going out there with that way of thinking to achieve. They say that when you put on that Socceroo or Australian national team shirt, you should do your best because you don’t get many chances to do that. Before we play for the country tomorrow night, we need to get ready. “We attack every team the same way,” Arnold said at the press meeting before the game.