The last time the Bangladesh women’s football team played a match against a team from another country, they were in a very different mood than they are now.
A confident Bangladesh team played Nepal in the final of the SAFF Championship on September 19 in Kathmandu. In the group stages, Bangladesh beat India, which is a big power in South Asia. Then, Golam Rabbani Choton’s team won the first title in the area with a resounding 3-1 victory, which made people all over the country happy.
Nepal and Bangladesh will meet again today, almost 10 months after that day. This is the first of two FIFA friendly matches in Dhaka, but the team isn’t very excited. Instead, there is sadness and fear in the team.
The team that led Bangladesh to their historic first SAFF title has lost two key players: striker Sirat Jahan Swapna and center-back Akhi Khatun. They left because the Bangladesh Football Federation (BFF) didn’t set up a single international match for them and didn’t meet their demands for a franchise league and a pay raise.
Another defender, Anuching Mogini, was kicked out of the camp because he didn’t do his job well. Shamsunnahar Jr. and Sajeda Akter, who were also on that team, are sick and can’t be counted.
The biggest problem for the team, though, is that their long-time head coach, Golam Rabbani Choton, just quit his job with the BFF and won’t be there to lead them. Since he isn’t there and technical director Paul Smalley isn’t helping with the “negotiation of contract,” the team’s morale is low, and they’ll have a hard time beating the Himalayan team, who they’ve only beaten once in nine games, losing six times and drawing twice.
The pre-game news meeting for the two FIFA friendly matches, the first of which starts today at 5:30 p.m. at the Birshreshtha Shaheed Mostafa Kamal Stadium in Kamalapur, naturally focused more on the team setting and its weaknesses than its strengths.
Mahbubur Rahman Litu, who has worked with Choton for a long time, will lead the team while the BFF looks for a new foreign coach.
“Every family has to deal with hard times. We also had a problem, but I wanted to bring the whole team back together. Litu tried to put a positive spin on things by saying, “Me and the players have all been looking forward to this match.”
“At the SAFF Championship, the team was full, but we’ll try to do our best even without them,” Litu said.
Captain Sabina Khatun said that they will accept the fact that Choton, who she said was like a family member, is no longer with them.
She thought, though, that the long time since the last match practice might hurt effectiveness.
“It’s clear that training and playing games are two different things. “After the first match, we might see some changes in how they play,” Sabina said.
Bangladesh is sad that their best players aren’t there, but Nepal, which has played four matches since the SAFF Championship, will have two of their best players, Sabitra Bhandari and Preeti Rai, who both missed the SAFF final because of illness or injury.
One good thing for the home team is that for the first time, they will be sleeping at a five-star hotel in Dhaka. This is an effort by the league to cheer them up. The BFF has also made it free for fans to get into the field so that the home team gets as much support as possible.