‘Japan experience helped against Singapore’
Bangladesh women's football team coach Saiful Bari Titu felt the experience of facing Japan in an Asian Games fixture earlier in September helped his side instill more maturity and clinic in their performance against Singapore yesterday.
Titu's charges thrashed the Singaporeans, ranked 12 places above 142nd ranked Bangladesh, 8-0 to wrap up the two-match FIFA Friendly series with two victories, having won the first match 3-0 three days earlier.
Tohura Khatun scored twice while Rituporna Chakma added one as Bangladesh raced to a 3-0 lead by the 24th minute of the match at the Birshreshtha Mostafa Kamal Stadium in Kamalapur yesterday.
While the home side, who had lost against the same opposition 3-0 in their only previous encounter six years ago, did not add to the tally before the break, they shipped five more goals in the second half to register an emphatic victory in front of a cheerful home crowd, thanks to another goal from Rituporna and once each from Sabina Khatun, Sanjida Akhter, Matsushima Sumaya and Shamsunnahar Jr.
Interestingly the scoreline of yesterday's match was identical to that against Japan, the former world champions, just the fact that the women in red and green were on the receiving end of the thrashing three months ago spoke of the improvement of the side.
"The players improved a lot mentally following the game against Japan, which helped in today's game," Titu, who is contracted till the end of this year, said at the post-match press briefing.
During the Asian Games, which was Titu's first assignment as the head coach of the women's team, Bangladesh also suffered a 6-1 defeat against Vietnam before ending the campaign with a 1-1 draw against South Asian rivals Nepal. However, the veteran coach was only willing to enjoy the two victories against Singapore.
"Bangladesh won 8-0, wow!" was what Titu said when asked about his reaction after the victory,
"Actually I didn't expect such a big victory. Usually when you score a few goals, the appetite for more goals decreases. But today the players were aggressive right till the very end, which was surprising to me," Titu added.
Rituporna, who made two assists apart from scoring a brace, termed the match as he best ever in the red and green shirt.
"This is my best match and a memorable one. I'm not disappointed at not getting a hattrick. The team has won and that is the most important thing," said the forward from Rangamati.
Skipper Sabina wanted the team to get early goals, which is what happened yesterday and it was the most pleasing aspect for the veteran striker.
"The girls played really well. They have worked hard," Sabina said. "Our target was to score goals within the first 15 minutes and that is what happened. So we are all happy."
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