The Football Federation of Sri Lanka has recalled veterans Kasun Jayasuriya, Raumi Mohideen, EB Channa, Bandara Warakagoda, Mohomed Issadeen and Fazul Rahuman to the National Squad.
This comes in the wake of former National Coach Nikola Kavazovic resigning from his post after the failure to beat Bhutan to qualify for the group stage qualifiers for the 2018 World Cup. Kavazovic started a rebuilding phase in Sri Lanka football after the 10-0 drubbing by Maldives before his time – and opted for a very young squad where the average age was 23.
There were much criticism from the football community of the lack of experienced players in the squad and also not including the league’s highest goal scorer, Mohomed Issadeen. However the squad progressed well with the tours to Seychelles and Bangladesh but nobody expected what happened on 12th of May at the Sugathadasa Stadium. Sri Lanka lost to FIFA last ranked Bhutan 1-0 in the first leg and lost 2-1 away diminishing at least a chance of qualifier group stage.
“We recalled them because apart from their exceptional playing skills they bring much needed experience for the side.” Sri Lanka Manager Balendra Anthony told exclusively with ThePapare.com.
“After the tours to Seychelles and Bangladesh, we thought these youngsters can cope without the experienced lads. But we were proven wrong against Bhutan. Out of the eleven that started there were 8 freshers. Only Sujan and Thilina Bandara had some sort of experience in international stage.” He went on.
Kasun Jayasuriya another former highest goal scorer in the league has also played for Dempo FC in the I-League in India, now plays for Negombo Youth. EB Channa from Super Sun and Issadeen from Army will bring in the goal scoring touch the side lacked in the past few months while Fazul Rahuman and Raumi Mohideen add stability to the mid field.
The National Squad has already started training under Sampath Perera and Dudley Steinwall who worked under Kavazovic. Sri Lanka’s next main international tournament will be the SAFF Championships which will be in December, where they will hope and need to perform better than last time.
