Javier Cabrera confidently stated yesterday that Bangladesh would play an aggressive game against the Maldives. Today, at Kings Arena, fans witnessed that ‘aggressive’ Bangladesh.
Rakib Hossain, Faisal Ahmed Fahim, Sheikh Morsalin, and Shahriar Emon led attack after attack, creating scoring opportunities within the Maldives’ territory. But the goal just didn’t come. Despite dominating the Maldives, Bangladesh walked away with a 1-0 defeat. Coach Cabrera summed it up after the match: ‘Unfortunate.’
For any coach, creating numerous chances without scoring is frustrating. Cabrera said, ‘We created so many opportunities, but couldn’t score. It’s truly disappointing.’
Cabrera felt his team did everything right except score. ‘Today, we did everything we needed to do. I’ll understand it even better when I look at the stats. We attacked, created chances, regained possession after losing the ball, but just couldn’t score. This match could have ended goalless, or if we’d won, it should’ve been by 3-4 goals. I believe, of all the matches I’ve coached for the national team and U-23 team, we created the most chances in this one.’
The set-piece goal Maldives scored in the 17th minute fell squarely on the defense. Topped by Topu Barman, the defense left Ali Fasir unmarked, lacking coordination with goalkeeper Mitul Marma. Watching them concede such a standing goal concerned Cabrera: ‘We’re repeatedly conceding goals on set pieces. We let in a similar goal in the second friendly against Bhutan. This one area we keep working on, yet it’s not improving. It’s both worrying and frustrating.’
Cabrera aims to carry the positives from this match into Saturday’s game. ‘Even in defeat, we played well today. I’m not unhappy with the team’s performance—they worked hard, and that’s a major positive. But this loss can’t be explained by any measure. From here, I’ll focus on carrying only the positives into the next match.’
