Ilievski conducts maiden training session with national booters

The newly appointed coach of Bangladesh national football team Nikola Ilievski conducted his maiden training session with national booters at BKSP in Savar Sunday ahead of the World Cup Football qualifier against Pakistan, reports UNB

In his first training session, the Macedonian coach of Bangladesh asked the players to play an attacking football with short passes and quick recovery.

The Macedonian coach, who likes attacking football, stressed emphasis on the quick interchange and speedy running of the footballers.

He expressed satisfaction over the players’ performance in the day’s session..

“I got a very short time to prepare the team for the upcoming challenge against Pakistan, it’s very difficult to answer about my target, –I shall try my best to insert an attacking brand of football,” said Ilievski.

The coach, split his players in two groups, initiated different sessions.

The players enjoyed the sessions and tried hard to give their best.

National striker Zahid Hasan Emily loved the procedures of new coach saying, “he was always asking to create pressure upon the opponents with ball or without ball, I think all the players enjoyed the session.

All the 24 players, except defender Mamun Miah, took part in the practice session. Mamun was given rest due to fever.

Bangladesh will play their home match against Pakistan on Wednesday (June 29) at Bangabandhu National Stadium in Dhaka and play their away match on July 3 in Lahore.

Ilievski imparts pressing football

Football focus shifted from professional league to the world cup pre-qualifiers against Pakistan as all 24 booters practised for the first time under new Macedonian coach Nikola Ilievski at the Bangladesh Krira Shikkha Protisthan in Savar yesterday.

The booters, who looked rather fatigued during the hour-long session due to the seven-month professional football league, said they wanted to keep their fatigue aside when they take on Pakistan, who will arrive in Dhaka today, in the home match on June 29 and then the away match on July 3 in Lahore.

“All the players are tired after playing a long league but we are determined to give our hundred percent in both matches against Pakistan,” said striker Zahid Hasan Emily after the practice session.

“We have had discussions among ourselves and everyone is committed to do something good against Pakistan as the advancement to the second round of the world cup pre-qualifiers will be something praiseworthy,” said Emily, who captained Bangladesh in their last international assignment in the AFC Challenge Cup in Myanmar.

Midfielder Mamunul Islam, echoing the sentiment of Emily, said the task would be a challenging one for them because they have been given short time to prepare for the matches.

“We are all concentrating on the international commitment and we know there is big difference between club-level football and international-level football. We all are focused to prove ourselves at the international level,” said Mamunul.

The national team will have another two days left to prepare themselves before the home match and it is yet to be found how quickly they can adopt to the new coach Ilievski’s strategy.

Both Emily and Mamunul said that that the style followed by Ilievski, that of pressing football, is similar to the one introduced by former coach Zoran Djordjevic introduced during SA Games, and that they would not have much difficulty adopting to Ilievski’s style.

“He prefers pressing football which we had learnt from Djordjevic. In this style you regain possession as soon as possible after losing it and I think we will be able to cope with his strategy,” said Emily.

It was seen during the practice that the coach preferred his players to release the ball as soon as possible and take his position while a defender or a defensive midfielder goes to the attack to strengthen the forward line keeping four defenders intact in the backline.

Ilievski is more or less happy after the session and apparently declined to mention whether any player drew his attention.

“The standard of Bangladesh football is not like that of Brazil and they don’t have a player like Messi,” Ilievski said. “It is a game of eleven players and I prefer to emphasise on all of them, not just a single one.”

Alam Zeb Safi

KARACHI: Veteran shot-stopper Jaffar Khan was named captain as the Pakistan Football Federation (PFF) on Saturday officially unveiled a 20-man national squad for their FIFA World Cup 2014 qualifier against Bangladesh.

Jaffar, who was snubbed for the AFC Challenge Cup qualifiers in Kuala Lumpur earier this year after he led the side in the Asian Games in China last year, was shouldered the responsibility once again to lead the side. The goalkeeper was preferred over KRL defender Samar Ishaq who led the team in their AFC Challenge Cup qualifiers in Malaysia.

Midfielder and former Pakistan Under-19 team captain Faisal Iqbal will serve as Jaffar’s deputy.

Pakistan will face Bangladesh in the first-leg on June 29 at the Bangabandhu Stadium in Dhaka while the return leg will be conducted at the Punjab Stadium in Lahore on July 3.

The team, currently in Islamabad, is scheduled to land here in Karachi on late Sunday night (tonight) and will fly out for Dhaka on Monday morning (tomorrow).

The team looked to have suffered a blow on Friday night when striker Arif Mehmood, Faisal Iqbal and England-based defender Atif Bashir suffered from minor injuries in their practice game against Navy at the Jinnah Stadium in the federal capital.

However, coach Tariq Lutfi is confident that the trio will recover ahead of the vital showdown against Bangladesh.

“Arif, Faisal and Atif were injured in the practice game against Navy on Friday but their injuries are not serious and I’m confident that they will recover ahead of the Dhaka game,” Lutfi told ‘The News’.

Lutfi also termed the team picked for the crucial slots as ‘balanced’.

“All the players have been picked purely on merit. We have tried our level best throughout the process of selection and I hope that we will produce desired results in the qualifiers with the same combination,” Lutfi said.

Meanwhile, Jaffar Khan also threw weight behind the lot picked for the assignment. “It is the best possible lot which has been picked for the job. All the boys are ecstatic and want to perform against Bangladesh,” Jaffar told ‘The News’.

“Foreign-based players including Atif Bashir, Zeeshan Rehaman and Adnan Farooq have been playing for the team for the last few years and we have a good understanding with them and I’m confident that we will be able to beat Bangladesh to qualify for the second round,” the captain said. Defender Zeeshan Rehman will join the team in Dhaka.

Squad: Goalkeepers: Jaffer Khan (captain), Jehangir Khan, Defenders: Samar Ishaq, Alamgir Khan, Kamran Khan, Mohammad Ahmad, Atif Bashir, Zeeshan Rehman, Midfielders: Faisal Iqbal (vice-captain), Manzoor Ahmad, Arif Hussain, Kaleemullah, Mehmood Khan, Hasnain Abbas, Ahmad Akbar Khan, Strikers: Arif Mehmood, Mohammad Qasim, Mohammad Ikram, Mohammad Rasool, Adnan Farooq,

Officials: Tariq Lutfi (coach), Nasir Ismail (assistant coach), Gohar Zaman (manager), Aslam Khan (goalkeeping coach), Dr Kamran Mehdi (physiotherapist), Irfan Khan Niazi (media manager).

Yaa… Because last time finishing was very poor.. Hope it’s better this time