Eve national futsal team off to Thailand

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DHAKA, April 30, 2018 (BSS) – The Bangladesh women’s national futsal team left for Thailand left on Monday afternoon for Thailand to take part in the AFC Women’s Futsal Championship Thailand 2018 will be held from 2-12 May 2018 in Bangkok.

Bangladesh, this will be a maiden venture for eves booters as they will be participating in such a tournament for the first time. Bangladesh eves are placed in group B in this championship along with Chinese Taipei, Malaysia and Vietnam.

Bangladesh will play their first and second matches against Malaysia and Vietnam on May 2 and 4 respectively at Bangkok Arena before taking on Chinese Taipei on May 6 at Indoor Stadium Hua Mak.

The semi-finals of the championship will be held on May 10 while the final is slated on May 12 at Indoor Stadium Hua Mak.

A total of 15 teams will participate in the tournament. The 15 teams will be divided into four groups (one with three teams and three with four team), with the group winners and the best runner-up advancing to the quarter-finals.

The tournament will serve as qualifying for the futsal tournament at the 2018 Summer Youth Olympics in Buenos Aires, with the winner and the runner-up qualifying for the girls’ tournament, to be represented by their U-18 representative teams.

However, Bangladesh team is confident about putting up a good show in the tournament.

Skipper Sabina Khatun earlier told that the team wants to keep working to execute the coach’s instructions on pitch and try to get the best possible result out of the matches.

Team’s had coach Golam Rabbani Choton and national technical and Strategic Director Paul Thomas Smalley also spoke in a positive manners about the team’s prospects in the tournament. Paul Smalley earlier said Even though it seems like a new introduction to the team, in reality, it is not. The players of the elite women’s residency camp have always had futsal training during every day sessions.

It’s just another tournament in the process of the players to grow.

“For this specific tournament, the team had an extra daily practice session in the handball court for the last couple of months or so just to get the players tuned up for the competition. The players have responded well and we are confident about the team doing well in the tournament,” he added.

Centreback Masura Parvin reiterated Paul’s statement saying that futsal is nothing dramatically different than football but just more fun in a shorter amount of time.

Only five players play on the pitch and there’s very little space. Everybody has to participate in all aspects of the game. Stamina is very important in futsal,” said the tall defender Masura.

Versatile defender Sheuli Azim stated that faster body movement and reaction time is key to doing better in futsal.