Girls add SAFF to conquests
The otherwise underappreciated Bisrshreshtha Shaheed Mostafa Kamal Stadium in Kamalapur turned into a scene of great joy for Bangladesh football yesterday. The venue at the remote corner of the city, which is mostly used to host second-tier professional football league matches, became the focal point of the rise of women's football in Bangladesh.
The Bangladesh team got the better of their Indian counterparts by a solitary goal, scored by winger Shamsunnahar in the 41st minute, in an entertaining final to clinch the title of the inaugural SAFF Under-15 Women's Championship. This group of girls had previously clinched two more titles -- the AFC U-14 Girls' Regional Championship in 2015 and 2016 -- but the win in front of their home crowd having remained unbeaten throughout gives the victory a new significance.
This win was not unexpected as the girls in red and green had gotten the better of the same opposition twice in last year's AFC Regional Girls' Championship and ambled past them by a bigger margin during the league stage fixture of this competition. Yet the anticipation of the victory in the grand finale pulled droves of people to the venue.
There were at least 8,000 spectators, including some celebrity footballers, and quite a few more taking advantage of the vantage points from nearby houses, plus millions keeping an eye on the action on different media formats. They were not disappointed by the famous girls of Golam Rabbani Choton.
The victory margin could have been bigger though as the hosts, understandably a bit tensed by the weight of expectations, spurned a number of chances. In fact they could have got into the scoresheet as early as the first minute had Bhutanese referee Choki Om not controversially disallowed a first-minute strike from Sara Ban Tahura, who had poked in Marzia's cross after the ball seemed to have slipped out of Monica Devi's grip.
There were chances aplenty in the first half as the hosts dominated the game, with Shamsunnahar and Tahura wreaking havoc through the left side of the attacking third, but there was no reward for a long time. Tahura, dubbed Messi of Kalshindur, nutmegged an India defender in the 32nd minute, but her shot whizzed across the face of the goal.
All that pressure eventually paid off four minutes before the break when Shamsunnahar darted into the box and, despite losing the ball, saw Anuching have a go at goal. The India keeper tried to block the shot, only managing to lob it up for Shamsunnahar to poke it in with a flick.
The second half started in a similar fashion to the first, with Anuching heading over a corner-kick before her snap-shot at the near post was parried away for a corner.
India, who enjoyed greater possession yet posed very little in terms of attacking threat as the game wore on, failed to really test Bangladesh goalkeeper Mahmuda Akter. Instead, the hosts should have extended the margin right after the hour-mark when a darting run by Anai Mogini followed by a flick from Anuching to release Tahura inside the box, but the nippy forward tried to get around the goalie and in the process made the target too acute to affect a fruitful shot.
Towards the end, Shamsunnahar failed to get her legs on the end of a shot from Marzia as the hosts passed some frustrating moments. But they were hardly under any pressure from the opposition as the final whistle was soon blown to a collective euphoria and with hopes of even bigger accolades in the near future.
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