Bangladesh head coach Jamie Day is looking forward to getting his players back to regular routine after quite a while, giving more focus on fitness in the initial days, as the national team begin their preparation camp Friday evening ahead of the 2022 World Cup qualifier game against Afghanistan on September 10.
With the reporting Friday and official training starting Saturday, the team will have a week-long camp in Dhaka before flying for Tajikistan on September 1 where they will train and play a couple of practice matches against the local top-flight clubs.
Day included goalkeeper Mazharul Islam Hemel in the new 26-man preliminary list of the national team after the Arambagh Krira Sangha custodian was excluded from the initial 25-man squad with three goalkeepers announced last week.
Abahani trio Shahidul Alam Sohel, Saad Uddin and Sohel Rana returned to the national side as Bangladesh announced the 25-man preliminary squad for their opening match against Afghanistan in the Joint Qualifiers of the 2022 World Cup and 2023 Asian Cuphttps://t.co/33uAZI4VYL#BFF
— Dhaka Tribune Sports (@Sport_DT) August 16, 2019
The final 23-man squad will be revealed next week.
“I want to have three goalkeepers all time so if one gets injured the rest three will go. I said before I like Hemel and he has done very well. I also want him in the camp until August 31. The goalkeeping coach (Bobby Mimms) can assess four keepers before finalizing the three,” said Day.
The English coach also talked a bit about his plans in the upcoming week.
“First week will be a bit more fun getting the place back into routine, fitness and concentrate more on what we need to do. We have three weeks to get everything right before the Afghanistan game. The second week will have more demand in tactical side,” said Day.
The Afghanistan game would be played on artificial turf in Dushanbe.
Bangladesh players are not used to playing on astro turf often compared to the opponent.
“When we go to Tajikistan we can use their astro turf for five-six days. Having astro turf as a home ground is a benefit for them but we are not going to make it an excuse. We will prepare best to get a positive result.”
Bangladesh are set to kick off the second round of the World Cup and Asian Cup joint-qualifiers campaign at a neutral venue in Tajikistan as it was officially confirmed that Afghanistan would get Dushanbe as their home venue for the opening 4 matchdayshttps://t.co/FsWARYFn5i#WC
— Dhaka Tribune Sports (@Sport_DT) August 14, 2019
Day was pleased to see his two players – Nabib Newaj Jibon and Sohel Rana – getting goals against North Korean giant 4.25 in the AFC Cup.
“It was pleasing to see as Sohel’s goal was a very good goal. Jibon’s goal was also good for striker. Hopefully it will give them confidence coming into the camp and compete other teams in Asia.”
