Thu, 28 Oct, 2021
Thimphu: Bhutan coach Torsten Spittler is hoping his young side can bounce back from their 14-0 dismantling at the hands of Oman in March when they take on the Maldives on Matchday Two of qualifying for the AFC Asian Cup UAE 2019.
The loss was the biggest suffered by the Himalayan kingdom’s national side since a 15-0 defeat at the hands of Qatar almost two years ago and the first by such a significant margin since Spittler took over the reins in October 2016.
“I never lost a game with a score line like that,” said the German coach. “To be honest I don’t have an explanation for that game because the team was doing very well up to that level and afterwards too.
“They did everything wrong that they could. It’s probably because they are young and inexperienced players. They have their ups and downs. This was a down.
“The good thing is they hit the bottom and now the only thing they can do is go up. The team, before I came, have had results like that. So hopefully they can handle it better than I can.
“The mood in the team is good and they haven’t lost fun in the game.”
Bhutan qualified for the third round of qualifying for the AFC Asian Cup by seeing off Bangladesh over two legs in the play-offs, with Spittler overseeing the second leg in October.
That game ended in a 3-1 win for Bhutan, with Chencho Gyeltshen scoring twice and Jigme Tshering Dorjee also finding the net in front of his side’s own fans in Thimphu and the former Nepal coach stressed his team is still improving since his arrival.
“I’m here now for a little bit over half a year and I told the players that the team is developing and not at its highest level,” says Spittler.
“I hope everyone else realises that too. They can take two steps forward and a step backward. We had our backward step, hopefully the next step is forward.
“The match against Bangladesh we dominated and we could have scored more. I will remind the players of that match. It is important to remind the young players what they are able to do.”
Spittler believes his team can give a more accurate account of themselves against the Maldives on Tuesday evening, when Bhutan will not only have the advantage of playing on home soil, but of familiarity with the conditions, including playing the game at altitude.
“I’m happy to tell you that training was good and all the players are fit,” he says. “We had some minor players with some players last week, but all of them recovered.
“If you ask me about my expectation, it’s a difficult situation for me and the team because of the last match. But I believe we have a good chance on our home ground.
“Maldives are a team that is playing at our level, so it’s an open game. It was an open game last October against Bangladesh where we did very well. I’m expecting the team to give the same kind of performance.”
Photo: AFP