SAFF Championship 2013: Extra day’s rest gives Bangladesh unfair advantage – Wim Koevermans

India coach Wim Koevermans has pointed out that his team’s next opponents Bangladesh have an unfair advantage as they have got an additional day to recover after their first game on Saturday.

As per the initial SAFF Championship 2013 schedule, both of Group A’s first round of fixtures were supposed to take place on Saturday, August 31^st but the India – Pakistan fixture was shifted to Sunday, September 1^st.

“I think that is not fair. I had asked to revert back to the original so that everybody has an equal opportunity but unfortunately it didn’t happen,” Koevermans told the reporters just before Monday’s training session.

Bangladesh’s Dutch coach Lodewijk de Kruif did his coaching badges under Koevermans but the India tactician just wants to focus on the battle between the two sides and not the coaches.

“I said before the first game that we have to win five finals so tomorrow as well we are expecting a tough game. India are still the team to beat being the defending champions so it is going to be very difficult considering that Bangladesh have to win to stay in the tournament,” the Euro 1988 winner stated.

Koevermans watched Bangladesh’s opening game against hosts Nepal which ended in a 2-0 defeat but refused to go into the details of his opponents and rightly wanted to focus on his own team.

Looking back at the Pakistan game, the 53-year-old admitted that it wasn’t a good performance by his team but he was happy with their second half improvement.

“We started the game well and looked good in the first 20 minutes but then Pakistan were better and very dangerous. Subrata (Pal) had to be in good form. In the second half we changed a few things and kept the ball better. We created plenty of chances which is always a good sign. I don’t know if the improvement was down to our better physical condition only but when they started playing 4-4-2 we could dominate midfield. Overall it wasn’t a good performance by us but it’s the first game and we have room for improvement,” he opined

India doesn’t have any serious injury concerns but since it will be their second game in as many days, Koevermans could be tempted to rotate his team.

“I haven’t decided that yet. We have to assess and see if that will be needed. We have just won the first game and have to keep going but obviously if our performances on the pitch suffer due to fatigue, I will have to make changes,” he concluded.