Thomas Dooley made a winning start as Bangladesh head coach but used his post-match press conference to identify clear technical shortcomings after a 2-1 international friendly victory over San Marino at the Stadio Olimpico di Serravalle on Friday.
Defender Topu Barman scored twice to secure Bangladesh’s first win on European soil. He put the visitors ahead in the 19th minute, but Nicolas Giacopetti levelled for San Marino just before the half-hour mark. Barman then struck four minutes from time to settle it. Bangladesh created additional chances but could not convert them.
Dooley was direct about the problems he saw. “Our main weakness is that we still need too many chances to score,” he said. “Sometimes our first touch is not right. So I have started working with the team on the basics, like perfecting passing and receiving. We lost some easy balls when playing out from the back, which is completely unacceptable on a football pitch. I warned the players about this from the start.”
That pattern with the ball from defence points to a squad still learning Dooley’s system. Bangladesh ranked 185th in the FIFA standings faced a side ranked 210th, yet still required a late goal to win. The finishing concern is not cosmetic. Dooley is building from structured principles, and the failure to kill games off when ahead will cost Bangladesh against better opposition.
On the opening spell, Dooley was measured. “How you start a match is very important. We struggled a little in the first five to ten minutes, but that is normal when you are playing in a different country, a different culture and a different style of football. From around the 10th to 15th minute of the first half, we started to play our natural game, used our pace and created some chances. Overall I am very pleased and satisfied with the players’ performance. In the second half we played even better football.”
Dooley also explained why ball losses from the back were more pronounced than he would have liked. “The players who lost the ball most when playing out from defence only joined the squad in the last two days. So they did not have a clear understanding of what we had discussed or how we had trained. I trusted the team, even though we only had a few days to work together.”
San Marino, ranked 211th by FIFA, have won none of their last five matches and conceded 25 goals in that run. The result was never in doubt as a baseline, but the manner of the performance gave Dooley enough data to work with before Bangladesh’s next assignment.
