Booters start training in Indonesia

Bangladesh national football team started their training in Indonesia on Saturday ahead of their FIFA friendly against Indonesia.

Bangladesh, currently ranked 188th by FIFA, will face Indonesia, ranked 159th, at the Si Jalak Harupat Stadium in Bandung on June 1.

Bangladesh, who reached Indonesia on Friday, completed a light recovery session at the venue of the match.

The booters were training at the Bashundhara Kings Arena before travelling to Indonesia but were missing Bashundhara Kings players as they were busy playing the AFC Cup in India. On Saturday, the 22-man squad managed to train together for the first time.

After the session, Bangladesh head coach Javier Cabrera said that it was a very positive session.

“Today we had the first session with 22 players, here in Indonesia. The session has mostly been about recovery after the long flight and the bus from Jakarta to Bandung. It has been a really positive and active session. It has been short, 45 to 60 minutes. It was for the players to have the feeling of the ball, release the stiffness and the tiredness of the journey to here,” he said.

Bangladesh defender Rahmat Miah said that they worked on defending on Saturday.

“It was our first training session in Indonesia. After the long journey, we could train today. Before today, we could train in groups as the players from Bashundhara Kings were away playing the AFC Cup. But today, we trained together with the full team.

“We worked with the defensive shape today, and later we worked on how to defend set-pieces. It was a low-intensity session as it was for recovery,” the defender said.