Indian goalkeeper Arindam continued his splendid performance in the tournament keeping Maldives at bay and saved two penalties to win the title for a fifth time.

Ibrahim Fazeel was the only player to score for Maldives on penalties, while Thoriq and Mukhthar’s kicks were well saved by Arindam. Ashfaq kicked the crucial last kick wide.

Both the teams entered the final of SAAF championship for a second consecutive year after India beat Bangladesh 1-0 and Maldives defeated Sri Lanka 5-1 in the semi finals.

The victory was also a perfect revenge for last year’s final loss in Colombo . It took a lot of teamwork, skill and courage for the Indian team to overcome the odds and defeat a rampaging Maldives side. Many had written off India even before the tournament started and a loss against Maldives in the group stages, didn’t boost India ‘s confidence. When they had reached the semis against Bangladesh , many felt that it was time for a routing. However, Bangladesh failed to find the target and the young lads from India completely outplayed their more illustrious opponents.
However Bangladesh was standing shell shocked with the outcome of the SAFF Championship.
The  Indian U23s provided the national booters with a lesson in combination football, possession play and intelligent ball retention to send the hosts out despite the packed house at the Bangabandhu National Stadium.
.Thousands of spectators was frustrated with the result as all wanted Bangladesh into the finals. Everybody was expecting that Bangladesh will turn out as the champions in their own yard but it did not happen.

Bangladesh interim coach Shahidur Rahman Shantoo. The former national goalkeeper failed to provide satisfactory responses to even the most basic of queries.

Asked why Bangladesh did not show any urgency to bounce back, Shantoo had no explanation.

“Before the match, everything was going in the right direction and the boys were hundred percent fit, but I still can’t understand why they did not show much urgency to come back into the game.”

Asked whether the boys took too much pressure playing before a jam-packed home crowd, Shantoo said, “I have no idea.”

The beleaguered coach shifted the blame on the players for looking tired and not executing the game plan.

“The boys did not play well. They looked tired the entire game and I will ask them why after returning to the hotel”

However Bangladesh Football Federation will now look forward with  the prime minister Sheikh Hasina awarding the Sylhet BKSP to BFF to turn it into a full fledged football academy. BFF President Salahuddin said that he was thinking of running the academy in light of the training academy of Ajax Amsterdam and he would visit the Netherlands to take advice for his academy.

The academy will initially start its activities with three groups Under-12, Under-15, Under-17 and the players will be recruited through talent hunting programme across the country as well as open trials and they will concentrate only on football nothing else. The interns will be picked by the BFF coaches from all over the country.

The BFF president said he felt the sadness of the country’s football lovers after the unceremonious exit of Bangladesh from the SAFF semi-final. ‘I apologise to them on behalf of federation for the failure, I found three things from the SAFF Championship, one is the fans’ love for football has not faded a bit, the standard of football has deteriorated and if football is in the field there will be no shortage of spectators,’ said Salahuddin.

Let’s hope Bangladesh football will go to the right direction to cope up with the challenges of the future.