Goals Are Bangladesh's Big Worry Before SAFF: Kanchan and Emily Look for a Striker

The SAFF Championship is at the door. Bangladesh hosts the tournament after eight years, and Thomas Dooley's team dreams of keeping the title at home. But the team's biggest worry before the tournament is scoring goals — the squad lacks a recognised striker and has no reliable goalscorer in attack.

There is no alternative to winning on the road to the title, and winning requires goals. Roknuzzaman Kanchan and Zahid Hasan Emily, the two former footballers who jointly top Bangladesh's SAFF scoring chart with five goals each, have offered their views on solving the problem.

Kanchan said that when Bangladesh became SAFF champions in 2003, the team had several players who could score. His partnership with Alfaz Ahmed was excellent — Alfaz was a skill-based player while he himself was a running player who kept opponents under pressure with his runs. That difference made their understanding on the field easy. He scored in important matches at the 2003 SAFF, including the first goal in the final against the Maldives.

In Kanchan's view, the players are not to blame for not winning the SAFF title in the last 23 years; the main problem is a lack of planning. He said talent could be found across the country's 64 districts through former national team players; selecting 10 players from each district and training them in an academy would produce good strikers.

He added that the football federation's job is to develop the country's football, and football must be prioritised over personal interests or politics. Goals cannot only be expected from players — players capable of scoring must also be produced.

Kanchan said Bangladesh wants to be champions in this SAFF, but emotion alone will not do it — the strikers must take their chances. There is also no reason to think Bangladesh will become champions just because Hamza Choudhury is there; the other countries have progressed a lot. Still, he wholeheartedly wants the SAFF title to be reclaimed.

Emily said that to win the SAFF as hosts, Bangladesh must score goals. Bangladesh was champion in 2003 and 2010. The team scored eight goals at the 2003 SAFF, with Alfaz and Kanchan among the scorers. At the 2010 SA Games the team scored 13 goals in all, with Enamul Haque, Mithun Chowdhury and Touhidul Alam Sabuj all scoring as strikers.

In Emily's view, there is no alternative to the strikers scoring if the SAFF is to be won. Since the current team lacks a recognised striker, if someone coming from deep — even centre-back Topu Barman — can contribute a goal, that too would be a big gain for the team. But goals must be scored to win, and scoring is exactly where the team's big shortage lies, he believes.

He added that those who can score should be given chances in forward positions. The absence of Ronan Sullivan is a big blow for Bangladesh. Many goalscoring chances will be created in this tournament, especially with plenty of crosses from both flanks — but the question is who will finally convert them into goals.

Sheikh Morsalin and Rakib Hossain are good players, but neither is a recognised striker in the natural sense, so a genuine striker shortage remains in the team. Mahi Khan is the only one, but how well he can handle match pressure and carry the responsibility, only time will tell.

Meanwhile, Bhutan will start its SAFF Championship campaign with a match against Bangladesh. The team arrived in Dhaka today, three days before that clash. They will not take the field straight away; Bhutan plans to begin training from tomorrow.