De Kruif arriving tomorrow

Bangladesh national football team's head coach Lodewijk De Kruif will be arriving here on Monday morning for a two-month stint ahead of Bangladesh's first two matches of the joint qualifiers of the World Cup and the Asian Cup to be held here in June, informed a Bangladesh Football Federation official yesterday.

The Dutch coach will come along with German goalkeeping coach Christian Schweichler and they will watch the ongoing matches of the Bangladesh Premier League to pick the squad for the opening two qualifiers against Kyrgyzstan and Tajikistan, on June 11 and 16 respectively, at the Bangabandhu National Stadium.

The first leg of the premier league is expected to be completed by May 22, which will give the Dutchman about 19 days to run the residential camp at BKSP in Savar.

"De Kruif will get at least three weeks as preparation time. He will observe the league matches in this time to pick his best possible squad," BFF general secretary Abu Nayeem Shohag.

It is understood that De Kruif's next stint in charge will be another temporary one after he guided the senior national team in the Bangabandhu Gold Cup in January and the under-23 team in last month's AFC Under-23 Championship qualifiers in Dhaka.

Bangladesh have been pitted against Australia, Jordan, Tajikistan and Kyrgyzstan in Group B. They will play 8 matches on home and away basis from June 11 to March 29 2015.