Despite the plans for a full training session, Bangladesh national football team’s opening day’s practice for the upcoming Hong Kong, China fixtures was cut short by heavy rain and thunderstorms on Tuesday. The team managed to do only light stretching before returning to the hotel.

On Tuesday, players arrived early, but rain interrupted proceedings. After just 15 minutes of light drills, the downpour intensified with thunder and lightning. Coach Javier Cabrera promptly led his players off the slippery pitch to avoid injuries.

Before training began, goalkeeper Mitul Marma spoke to the media about the upcoming matches.

“We haven’t played against Hong Kong, China for a long time. We’ve been analyzing their recent games and preparing accordingly. Since we’ll face them twice, the home match will be very important. But our goal is to perform well in both,” Mitul said.

“If we had played a few more matches, it would have been positive. But even without them, our preparation has always been centered on these qualifiers. Whether in the league or elsewhere, our main target is these two games. We’ll use the time we have left to get ready and give our best on the pitch.”

Midfielder Sohel Rana expressed his thoughts about the Hong Kong, China encounter, “The mistakes we made against Singapore are ones no team at the international level would allow you to recover from. From what we’ve understood, Singapore won that match because of our individual errors. Looking ahead, if we don’t give 100% against Hong Kong, China, it will be very difficult to win. But we believe we have the team to beat them, and Inshallah, we will.”

The Bangladeshi midfielder also discussed the team’s internal competition, “Having competition within the team is a positive thing. The more challenges we face, the better the results will be. We don’t take it personally — instead, we see it from a team perspective. Right now, we have three to four players competing for a single position, and that’s a healthy sign. For me, it’s encouraging to see this level of depth in the squad.”

Mohammedan Sporting Club’s six players joined the squad yesterday, even though they initially stated they would release their players 72 hours before the home match on 9 October. The team will train in full force from today, excluding key players Hamza Choudhury and Shamit Shome. Joining the camp from Mohammedan are: Shakil Ahad Topu, goalkeeper Sujon Hossain, striker Sumon Reza, defenders Rahmat Mia and Mehedi Hasan, along with Jahid Hasan Shanto, who received a late call-up.

Explaining the decision, Mohammedan manager Imtiaz Ahmed Nakib said, “For the interest of the national team, our club directors and technical committee agreed to release the players earlier. Since all other clubs had already released theirs, we decided to follow the same path.”