Win or lose, let's hope they entertain

The third floor of the BFF House is a restricted area which the Bangladesh U-16 women's team have made their temporary abode for about a year. If you are mistakenly on the foyer of the third floor you will find neatly arranged shoe-racks with multi-coloured, shimmering boots on display. The clean carpet in the lobby suggested that it was most probably there for the girls to perform their prayers.

This only speaks to how neat and tidy the girls are.

But our curiosity was about how these girls have been preparing for the finals of the AFC U-16 Women's Championship, which will be staged in Thailand next month.

The girls actually have hardly spoken to the media since their spectacular triumph in the qualifying phase at home last September, when they beat teams like Chinese Taipei and Iran to top Group C and earn a place in the eight-team finals. They have also been training behind closed doors and the media were only updated with results whenever they toured abroad -- the girls have gone on five tours since January this year including twice to Japan. Their last outing was in July in South Korea, where they played four games against different selections of the home side.

It was not just that they had won their group but it was their free-flowing approach that captured the hearts and minds of fans, who have been starved of quality football at any level in the country. The girls in red and green have scored 26 goals against two in the qualifying campaign, which is something extraordinary considering that these girls started kicking the ball only a few years ago and Bangladesh have had structured women's football for nine years.

The kind of football the girls played last year was more like a freedom of expression. With basics deeply rooted through playing primary school football championships, the girls actually reaped the rewards of playing together for a couple of years under the guidance of the game's local governing body. This is also a unit that maintained continuity, which is exceptional in the context of the country's overall picture of football, where anything and everything is short-term, starting from the age-group level to the national team.

The qualifying success was an achievement in itself. But they will be lined up against the likes of North Korea, Japan and Australia in the finals, where eight teams will be split into two groups. The bridge is too far from qualifying to the finals. North Korea are not only defending champions, they are the best in the world at age level. So are Japan, who won the title a record three times since its introduction in 2006. Australia's youth development system is one of the best in the world.

In that context, the Bangladesh girls stand little chance to be competitive, let alone win a game at the group stage.

But if you look at the determination on these girls' faces and what they have done in the course of one year behind those closed doors or in the friendly games they played, you can probably see the light at the end of the tunnel.

You will be amazed to learn that the training these girls are undergoing is of a level fit for professionals.

“They have gone through the cooper test. In 12 minutes, the average running of the girls is now 2700m to 3000m. Tahura ran 2850 meter in 12 minutes and Sanjida ran 2800 meter in 12 minutes,”coach Golam Rabbani Choton told The Daily Star at the BFF House last week.

The footballer-turned-coach even said that they were trying to play 'total football'.

“Everyone now knows what to do after winning the ball or losing it. We are trying to implement it as they are our future footballers. It's not possible for an adult to learn it and it has to be started at the age-group level. If the girls can keep playing the way they played against Korea and Japan [in tour games], I believe someday these girls will be able to play total football,” added Choton.

Total football is a big thing and it's the most attractive way of playing soccer. The idea is to play attractive, regardless of result. There were three members of the U-16 team sitting beside Choton and when asked about their understanding of total football,they made quite interesting observations.

“Before, our goalkeeper played hurriedly after catching the ball but now we start the play from the defence, then midfield and forward. We also came down when we defend,” said striker Krishna Rani.

“Our technical director always tells us to play in between two players and create spaces. We could not understand it before but we are learning it now. Besides, I'm also learning pressing football,” midfielder Mishrat Jahan Mousumi observed.

For winger Sanjida: “It is too tough to play this type of football. I enjoy when we are attacking but it's really tough when we are defending because I have to do a lot of running backward.”

During that animated session with the players and the coach, Choton disclosed a very interesting insight into the team's first visit to Japan in January. 

“Before our first game against Saki Academy we were mentally very low, not because we were playing for the first time against a Japanese side but because of the fact that the Thailand U-16 team suffered a 10-0 defeat against the home team the other day. We were worried a bit but boosted the girls mentally and the next day, we beat them 2-1,” said Choton.

The victory only reflected the fact that the Bangladesh girls have got skill.

“We are physically not as strong as Japan, Korea and China. They are more skilled and tactically they are superior. We might have lost to South Korea 6-0. But we played our own game and the result did not reflect how well we played,” Choton added.

Krishna still fondly recalls one incident from that game when she dribbled past five players before being brought down. Sanjida was very excited about her curling free-kick over the wall in a game during the South Korea tour. Mousumi said that she was very happy to play the role of a destructive midfielder. 

And Paul Smalley, the technical and strategic director of the BFF, perhaps summed up the expectation of football fans best -- win or lose the girls should be entertaining next month.

“You used some very good words. Exciting, freedom and expression; I like those words. It's our responsibility together when we offer games and players to the public to portray that kind of identity of playing football. The girls quite honestly really didn't play against competitive teams in the SAFF Championship. Our responsibility is not to lose the freedom, excitement, creativity and expression in the girls but to put it into strong bedrock. The bedrock is that they must be able to compete physically, with a game-understanding tactical perspective and technically. Our challenge is to make sure that we interlink all those things and the emphasis of training has been in those areas. We must maintain and retain that freedom of expression. Total football is a very big description. Let's say that the girls need to enjoy playing the game when they're in possession of the ball because we have a responsibility to entertain,” Smalley told The Daily Star at Fars Hotel in the city last week.