South Asian Games men's football
Defending champions Bangladesh Olympic Football Team missed the chance to play the final of men's football discipline of ongoing South Asian Games-2016 after losing to host India by discomforting 3-0 margin the second semi-final of the event on Saturday.
The match took place at the Indira Gandhi Athletic Stadium, Guwahati in India
After the defeat, Bangladesh will play the third place decider on Monday at the same venue at 2:00pm.
In the match on Saturday, Bangladesh played devastating and failed to defend the castle for so long. India led the first half by 2-0 margin and netted the final goal in the second half.
However, the Bengal boys defeated the same rivals by 1-0 margin in the semi-finals of last edition of SA Games Football in 2010 in Dhaka.
India had gotten revenges against their continental rivals properly with this win.
So far, Bangladesh Olympic Team lost three of the six matches to India and won one.
Team's assistant coach Golam Zillani in the post-match briefing said, "Yet we lose it. I'm happy with my team's performance. They are gradually doing well."
"We conceded the second and third goals due to some silly mistakes. Besides, India were a good opponent and they got the home advantage."
Also the coach blamed referees over some controversial decisions during the match.
He said, "Some of match referee decisions also went against us, moreover we missed two to three good chances that caused the defeat."
In recent times, apart from Bangladesh, other South Asian countries like Bhutan, Nepal and India are gradually doing well in football. Especially they are putting more effort on age-based football development.
However, in Bangladesh, age level development is lagging far behind the expected level.
Olympic team is usually the upcoming force of the national team. If the condition of the Under-23 team is that bad, then the future of local football is definitely in great danger.