National Football team leaves for KL en route to Australia

The Bangladesh National Football team left Dhaka for Malaysia Wednesday en-route to Perth to play in the FIFA World Cup Asian Qualifiers/AFC Cup Qualifiers in a hope to display their ever-best performance against Asian champions Australia on September 3.
Before depart for Perth on Sunday (Aug 30), Bangladesh team will play a FIFA International Friendly match against Malaysian National team on Saturday (Aug 29) at the Shah Alam Stadium in Kuala Lumpur as a part of their preparation against four-time FIFA World Cup Playing Australia.
After return from Australia on Sept 4, Bangladesh National football team will play their home match against another giant Jordan on Sept 8 in Dhaka.
Earlier, Bangladesh grouped with Australia, Jordan, Tajikistan and Kyrgyzstan to play home and away basis qualifying round matches.
Skipper of two times Bangladesh Premier Football League champions and the country’s celebrated midfielder Mamunul Islam Mamun retained as captain in the Australia-bound Bangladesh team, comprises 23 booters and 10 officials.
In a pre-match press conference at the BFF house on Tuesday, the Dutch head coach of Bangladesh team Lodewijk Darius De Kruif said, “I am happy with prefect preparations, it’s a great journey and a great opportunity for us to play against high quality team (Australia) and high profile players. We selected our team with best talented available players, our teams is very much motivated and is ready to give their best, it will be a difficult match, but we are not afraid of them (Australia).”
Replying to question, Bangladesh coach said, “I am happy to lose, draw or win, but everything can happened in football, –Australia beat Kyrgyzstan by 2-1 goals in away match recently, I cannot find any big difference between Bangladesh and Kyrgyzstan.”
Addressing the press conference Bangladesh captain Mamunul Islam Mamun said, “After two days’ preparations, our players are very much inspired to give ever-best performance in Perth against heavy weight and elite rivals.”
BFF Vice President Tabith Awal said, “We have no pressure at all, pressure is on Australia as highly rated team, the match against Australia is not gifted one, we earned the rights to play against them on merit”.
Bangladesh Team leader and former national player Iqbal Hossain, team manager and BFF member Amirul Islam Babu and goalkeeping coach of Bangladesh team Christian Schweichler also spoke on the occasion.
Selected players are: Mamunul Islam Mamun (Captain), Shahidul Alam, Rasel Mahmud, Ashraful Islam Rana, Rayhan Hasan, Nasirul Islam Nasir, Tapu Barman, Yeasin Khan, Yeamin Ahmed Chowdhury Munna, Atiqur Rahman Meshu Mohammad Linkon, Sohel Rana, Hemonta Vinsent Biswas, Jamal Bhuyan, Monaem Khan Raju, Emon Mahmud, Abdul Baten Majumder Komal, Taklis Ahmed, Aminur Rahman Sajib, Zahid Hossain, Jahid Hasan Ameli, Jewel Rana and Enamul Haque.
Officials are: Team Leader- Iqbal Hossain, Team Manager-Amirul Islam Babu, Head Coach- Lodewijk De Kruif, Coach – Saiful Bari Titu, Goalkeeper Coach- Christian Schweichler, Asstt Coach- Masud Parvez Kaiser, Media Manager –Ahsan Ahmed Amit, Team Doctor- Sheikh Shahinur Hossain, Physio -Shahjib Shams Bakshi and Attendent-Mohammad Mohsin