Chattogram Abahani vie for winning start
Sports Reporter
Chattogram Abahani get-up-and-go to make a winning start in the Walton Federation Cup football when they take on Rahmatganj MFS in the opening match of the tournament today at the Bangabandhu National Stadium at 5pm.
Chattogram Abahani were ill fated in the last season as they narrowly missed the opportunity to scalp Federation Cup and also the Independence Cup but this time they want to make it a success. The club were close to win both the Fed Cup and Independence Cup but suffered defeats in the finals of both occasions to Abahani Limited (Dhaka) and Arambagh KS respectively. They also led the league table up to 17th round last season.
However, this time they are very much aware of eleventh hours collapse of lasts year and will begin the season with the determination to do well in the Federation Cup, as Arman Aziz, manager of the team told this correspondent yesterday.
We are ready to begin our campaign but I dont know how big the impact will be but I know all of my players look naturally confident.
Arman Aziz, former national booter believes that as the foreign players would be the main factor to make the difference, in this respect they have acquired Nigerian Muftal Awal, Mamoudu Bah and another Nigerian who played for Muktijodha and Mohammedan previously.
Actually in any tournament nobody can say who is favourite, you see last year Arambagh became champions in the Independence Cup surpassing all the giants and defeated us in the final.
On the other hands, Rahamtganj MFS, the giant killers of last season, will also expecting to do well against the big opponents but they had some problems with taking preparation due to practice ground problem.
Syed Golam Jilani, who replaced Kamal Babu as coach of Rahmatganj with some respect to the title contenders, said, They are big budgeted team, I have to respect them and will try to do well.
When I signed my new contract, I expected a tough period but would be a tougher than I believed. Theres been a lot of obstacles to overcome when we have not a practice ground. Its not easy to expect something high, considering the circumstances our problem, but will try as best as we can.
Jilani, who also thinks like his counterpart Arman Aziz that the foreign players will make the difference of any match, as he said, Its is true, if you compare the local players of big team and small teams, I believe the difference is 19-20, foreign players will make the difference. In this respect our collections are good, they proved their potential here, playing for different sides and also for Rahmatganj last season.
