As the opulent bus that was transporting the Bangladesh national football team came to a stop in front of the forbidding iron gate in front of the Hindustan Aeronautical Limited (HAL) Sports Club, the defeated expressions that had been plastered on the faces of the players after their loss to Lebanon in the SAFF Championship on Thursday became immediately apparent.
Even as they got off the bus after it had slowly traveled to a practice site that was surrounded by thick foliage, the players did not grin much as they did so before gathering their belongings. When Tariq Raihan Kazi onto the field with a net full of footballs and flung it aside before all of the football players and coaching staff assembled for a team meeting, he committed a costly mistake that led to the first of two goals.
The players exploded in cheers once Spanish coach Javiera Cabrera had finished briefing them, and the mood underwent a dramatic transformation as a result. After finishing their one-and-a-half-hour training session, the players entered the locker room with a positive attitude, and it seemed as though they were prepared to make amends when they played Maldives on June 25.
The early plans that Bangladesh had to realize their goal of reaching the semifinals had mostly depended on the outcomes of their matches against Maldives and Bhutan. Even if their goal was to earn a point against Lebanon, the majority of supporters were just hoping for a strong performance from the team.
Although they turned in a strong performance by keeping the game scoreless until the 80th minute, which should have provided a significant morale boost, the gut-wrenching manner in which they lost the game raised questions about whether the team could move on from their disappointment before their game against Maldives.
“You came so near [even to winning the match], therefore it is understandable that your level of disappointment is higher. And while such is to be expected, the time has come to focus on the brighter aspects of the previous day. “There’s no point in focusing on the result, so I’m trying to concentrate on the positives instead,” Cabrera said after the workout.
“It is all about keeping your concentration. At this point, the players should not be disheartened but rather inspired and thrilled about their performance. They will be a better team than they were the day before yesterday as a result of the experience they gained against Lebanon. The 38-year-old said, “And that will get us closer to winning against Maldives and give us a better chance to beat them.”
When we play the Maldives, we need to have the mindset that we are going to win. Going into the pitch with the goal of scoring one point accomplishes nothing and is meaningless. Cabrera asserted, “That is not how we are going to face our opponents,” and went on to say that they would need to be more mindful of their surroundings since he saw the tie as having an equal chance of occurring.