Kings look to conquer new ground
Rarely had any of Bangladesh's professional soccer clubs taken the AFC-sanctioned club tournament very seriously, so that it inevitably followed that the country's outfits exited the competitions at the pre-qualifying or qualifying stages.
Six-time professional group champions Abahani, along with Sheikh Jamal, Sheikh Russel and Saif Sporting Golf club got opportunities to take up the AFC Cup but none could produce satisfactory results, except within the last edition when Abahani crossed the group stage within their fourth attempt and achieved a exceptional success by contesting the zonal semifinals.
However, latest Bangladesh Premier League champions Bashundhara Kings are eager to buck the style as the brand new powerhouses of Bangladesh soccer are acquiring the AFC Cup significantly before their debut.
Roping in past Argentinian national striker Harnan Barcos (with an impressive wage of around 20,000 USD monthly) solely pertaining to the tournament underlined their intentions in Asia's second-tier club tournament, that they qualified simply by clinching the BPL title.
Bashundhara reaped the benefits of their tireless preparations for the AFC Glass by notching a huge 5-1 win over TC Sports Golf club of Maldives within their opening match, before the tournament was suspended as a result of coronavirus pandemic.
The Asian Football Federation (AFC) is defined to restart the AFC Cup in later October and participating clubs are priming their respective squads. Kings possess once again displayed the intent to seize the chance by strengthening their squad in the wish of earning their debut a unforgettable one by realising their target to be group champions.
Kings have decided release a all four foreign players except Barcos for the AFC Glass, like the influential Daniel Colindres, and so are now searching for replacements.
"We are hopeful to getting top quality replacements for the 3 foreign players. We've previously gotten four to five CVs from Iraq, Australia, Argentina and additional countries. We are actually watching their videos, analysing their functionality and looking to get thoughts from known foreign instructors," club president Imrul Hasan told The Daily Celebrity, hinting they are buying a foreign centre-back again to rebuild a vulnerable backline.
Coach Oscar Bruzon is also supports singing a overseas centre-rear. "Regarding our backline, I'd not say we had a trouble in the backline itself however in the whole defensive level [collective defence] as we had been missing [because of accidental injuries] ball winners in the midfield such as for example [Masuk] Zony and [Atiqur Rahman] Fahad," Bruzon told The Daily Star.
Hasan also revealed ideas to rope in a good left-winger, who can help Barcos.
"We are as well trying to locate a speedy left-winger to displace Colindres in order that he can problem the opposition backline and create free space for Barcos," said Hasan, adding that they might as well be trying to displace injured native players in the event they fail to recover before the resumption of AFC Cup.
Bashundhara Kings have planned a six-week preparation beginning with the initial week of September to solidify the workforce combination with possible fresh signings. They are actually thinking about shifting their camp to the center East if Qatar hosts the AFC Glass Group E qualifiers.
"Unofficially we've learned a few countries like Qatar and UAE will be thinking about hosting Group E qualifiers next month, but clubs aren't ready. If they agree, in that case our nationwide footballers will stay back in Qatar to join club training after Bangladesh's meet against Qatar on October 13," said Hasan.
While Hasan wants Bashundhara Kings to emulate Abahani's feat, he'd love the medial side to surpass the giants by using the zonal final in their debut appearance.
