‘Scoreline does not reflect girls’ real performance’

Bangladesh women's football team suffered a second successive defeat in the Asian Games, losing 6-1 against Vietnam at the Wenzhou Olympic Sports Center Stadium on Monday.

Following an 8-0 drubbing at the hands of Japan, the women in red and green came into the match with hopes of putting on a better show against Vietnam, who beat Nepal 2-0 in their first match.

The charges of Saiful Bari Titu did put on a better performance than they did against Japan but still could not stop Vietnam from raking up the goals. Vietnam, who played the latest FIFA Women's World Cup, went 2-0 up in the first half before adding four more in the second half.

"The scoreline does not justify the performance put in by the girls," said head coach Saiful Bari Titu. "We conceded the first goal after a silly mistake while the second was struck from a long ball.

"From the start of the second half, we pressed high and that forced Vietnam to defend deep. We had also better ball passion, passing, and throwing, and even we created a few chances though we could not convert any.

"What we could not do against Japan, we did it against Vietnam, even Nepal could not do what we did against Vietnam. But the scoreline does not reflect the real performance of the girls," Titu added.

Career-best score for shooter Arnab

Despite having little to no hopes from the men's 10m Air Rifle individual and team events, Bangladesh shooter Sharar Arnab ended up scoring his career-best of 626.2 points to finish 18th among 54 shooters in the Asian Games yesterday. Shooters Tamjid Bin Alam and Robiul Islam finished 22nd and 28th, respectively, by scoring 625.5 and 623.9. Bangladesh finished seventh among 14 teams, scoring a total of 1875.6 points.

Swimmer Rafi finishes last in Heat

Swimmer Samiul Islam Rafi, who on Sunday improved his 100m backstroke timing, finished 22nd among 32 swimmers in the 50m backstroke event by clocking 27.20 seconds in Heat-3, finishing last among eight participants.

Boxer Abu Talha in 2nd round

Boxer Abu Talha was given a bye in his first round of the 51kg weight category, like New York-based boxer Zinnat Ferdous. Talha will now compete in the pre-quarterfinal against winner of the match between Dayanch Annaseyidov of Turkmenistan and Khalid Abdul Aziz of Saudi Arabia on September 28.