Bangladesh Play Indonesia Today

Bangladesh begin their Merdeka Cup campaign today when they meet Indonesia in Group B in Kuala Lumpur.

The match will kick off at 7 pm Bangladesh time at the Shah Alam Stadium in the Malaysian capital.

With the mainstream footballers touring India for the Nehru Cup, it would be a challenge for the second-string national team led by Hassan Al Mamun in a group also featuring Singapore and Zimbabwe.

Although the team have mostly newcomers, the tournament will give veteran and out-of-favour footballers like Hassan Al Mamun, Matiur Munna, Parvez Babu and Saifur Rahman Moni a golden opportunity to impress and return to the senior team before the SAFF Championship.

It is the fourth time Bangladesh are taking part in the prestigious tournament, where they had won only match in previous 19 attempts, a 1-0 victory against Nepal in 1983.

In 1973, Bangladesh drew with Thailand and Singapore while two years later when they played eight matches to suffer huge 7-1 and 9-1 defeats to Burma and Hong Kong respectively, Bangladesh faced Thailand twice with both games ending 1-1.

The only time Bangladesh played Indonesia in this tournament was in 1975, crashing 4-0. Bangladesh went down twice to the Southeast Asians before the losing streak ended with a memorable 2-1 victory in Dhaka when Bangladesh won the home leg of the World Cup qualifier in 1985.

The last time the two teams met, the result was 1-1 in the Quaid-e-Azam Trophy in Pakistan also in 1985.

Bangladesh got the chance to train at the match venue yesterday under coach Hasanuzzaman Babloo, who has playing experience in the tournament. It was learned that the coach also visited Indonesia's practice session.

On the opening day of the tournament yesterday, Myanmar faced Lesotho while hosts Malaysia were pitted against Laos.

Bangladesh will take on Singapore and Zimbabwe on August 23 and 25 respectively.