Bangladesh’s game against Maldives had everything: Alfaz Ahmed

Former Bangladesh national team star forward Alfaz Ahmed wants national players to showcase an attitude similar to the one they had yesterday in future fixtures as well, after the men in red and green confirmed their place in the World Cup Qualifiers for the third time in a row with a 2-1 win over Maldives in the second leg of the preliminary round on Tuesday.

Bangladesh had confirmed their last edition's World Cup Qualifiers with an aggregate 1-0 win over Laos while they had secured a direct place at the 2014 World Cup Qualifiers due to a better FIFA ranking. This time around they were up against a strong side Maldives, who are 34 places ahead of Bangladesh in FIFA Rankings and had a superior record against Bangladesh in recent past.

"Having watched the match, it was apparent to me that the players had their backs against the wall and they looked determined to do something. There was no shortage of effort and commitment to do something for the nation. 'We have to win the match' is something the players felt from their hearts. I mean their attitude was different from the past which I liked most," Alfaz Ahmed told The Daily Star today.

Alfaz, the head coach of Mohammedan SC, also believed that the players proved a point that they can do it.

"The players proved that they can do it as there was everything in the match from scoring, conceding, misfiring, fight-back, passing, crossing, attacking, defending, to goalkeeping skills. Everything was in Bangladesh's game," said Alfaz, a member of Bangladesh's 2003 SAFF Championship winning squad.

The former forward however feels that the players must maintain their consistency in future fixtures and then the supporters will shore up for the team and be entertained watching Bangladesh's match.

"The players have to maintain these performances, have to be consistent, otherwise all effort will go in vain. The players of the national team have also been improving, I think. If they can maintain this type of game, then everyone will be entertained watching Bangladesh matches in future," said Alfaz.

"The most significant factor was the full-house crowd which proved that there is still love towards football," he added.

Asked how Bangladesh can cash in on the World Cup Qualifiers against Australia, Lebanon and Palestine, Alfaz opined that Bangladesh should do experiments in those qualifying matches to bring out new players before next SAFF Championships.

"As the likes of Tapu, Morsalin are not totally indispensable for the national team, I think the coach should bring out some new players by giving them more game time in those international matches as our main target is to win the SAFF Championship.

"We can do some experiments in these matches by sending the fresh players because some of the players are approaching an end and the coach have to find their replacements through such international matches. If he can do it, the new players will get valuable international experience in high intense battles and be more matured and experienced in near future," opined Alfaz suggesting that we hardly have any chance of winning over the strong opponents in World Cup and the coach can exploit the opportunity to strengthen the national team.