Bangladesh football team are returning from Europe today with a historic 2-1 victory against San Marino -- their first-ever win over European opposition and on European soil. Yet if the scoreline offered encouragement, the performance itself revealed why the new coach, Thomas Dooley, appears to be treating the victory more as a starting point than a destination.
For all the celebrations surrounding Topu Barman's match-winning brace, Dooley's post-match assessment focused as much on the result as on the flaws that continue to hold Bangladesh back.
That perhaps should not be surprising.
When he was unveiled in Dhaka two weeks ago, Dooley did not talk about grinding out results, instead, he outlined an ambitious vision built around possession, positional play and proactive football.
"The foundation of my philosophy is that we do not run after the ball. Instead, we keep possession and put pressure on our opponents," he said.
Against San Marino, there were signs of that philosophy. Bangladesh attempted to build from the back and dominate possession whenever possible. At times, the team looked more adventurous than it has in recent years.
But the match also exposed the gap between the football Dooley wants to play and the football Bangladesh are currently capable of producing.
The most obvious issue was efficiency in attack. Bangladesh created enough chances to win more comfortably but required a set-piece goal in the 86th minute to secure victory against the world's lowest-ranked side.
"Our main weakness is that we still need a lot of chances just to score a goal," Dooley admitted.
The absence of Rakib Hossain undoubtedly hurt. His replacement on the right flank, Rafiqul Islam, with Faysal Ahmed Fahim at the other end, struggled to provide a consistent threat and were both substituted shortly after the hour mark. The fact that Dooley eventually turned to defender Bishwanath Ghosh in an advanced role underlined his lack of attacking options on the bench.
Yet finishing was only part of the problem.
Perhaps more concerning for a coach committed to possession football was Bangladesh's inability to consistently retain the ball. Poor first touches, misplaced passes and cheap turnovers repeatedly disrupted promising moves.
Rather than blaming tactics or personnel, Dooley went straight to fundamentals.
"Sometimes, our first touch isn't right. That's why I have started practising very basic and fundamental things with the team -- like perfecting passing and receiving," he said.
The encouraging part for Bangladesh is that the coach believes those shortcomings are fixable.
"We need to change our mindset, then change our training patterns, and finally, change our style of play," he said.
State Minister for Youth and Sports Aminul Haque had labelled San Marino as a test case for Dooley. In that sense, the German-American coach passed. But the greater significance of the match may be that it helped him identify exactly where Bangladesh stand -- and how much work remains before his footballing vision becomes a reality.
