26 goals in three matches: Aikman admits Bangladesh conceded too many

After suffering another heavy defeat in the third and final match in the qualifiers play-off series against Pakistan, Bangladesh hockey team's Dutch coach Siegfried Aikman said the number of goals conceded had simply been too much for his side.

Following 8-2 and 8-0 losses in the first two matches, Bangladesh endured another big defeat -- by a 10-3 margin -- in the final game, taking their total goals conceded to 26 across the three-match series. The results were a stark contrast to their spirited fight in the 2023 Hangzhou Asian Games, where the men in red and green went down 5-2 to Pakistan.

Interestingly, Pakistan scored all but one of their goals from penalty corners. Bangladesh had defended penalty corners well in the first match, but Aikman's charges gradually conceded more from such situations as the series progressed.

"I think we lost as expected. The score is too much, in my opinion, especially if you look at the game," Aikman said. "In many parts of the match, we could cope with them, but in the counter-attacks and in being smart, they are more experienced. You can see their experience and their determination to play at a higher pace. We are not used to facing opponents who are so aggressive in scoring goals because it hardly happens."

"In domestic leagues, if our players make a mistake, they have time to recover. These guys — the opponents — directly accelerate. Our mindset is not yet in our muscle memory. So our mindset is not to accelerate back immediately. Those are the moments when they counter-attack and score," added the Dutchman, who is supposed to guide Bangladesh in the U-21 World Cup in India, but as of yesterday, had yet to obtain his Indian visa.

"I think we tried to play structured and organised hockey, and we did reasonably well. Today we created many chances and we can score also, but we missed even open goals," the coach said.