On Monday, Bangladesh goalkeeper Mile Akter marked her 20th birthday by putting up her best-ever performance in international football.
In Bangladesh’s opening Group F match at the Asian Games 2026, up against a much-superior North Korea side, Mile made nine saves in total – the most she has made in a single match for the national side.
This is a remarkable stat, but unfortunately for Mile, not the one this match will be remembered for.
In Osaka, Japan, Mile stopped nine potential goals, but let in 10.
In no way does the blame for the defeat fall on Mile. In a match where her teammates failed to make a single attempt at goal, while the North Koreans made 38 – there wasn’t much she could’ve done.
A defeat like this is usually followed by heavy criticism, hue and cry, calls for changes, finger-pointing and mud-slinging.
But before all that commences, it’s important to understand what this defeat actually means, and what it doesn’t.
In the pre-match press conference ahead of the North Korea tie, Bangladesh women’s team head coach Peter Butler had spoken about giving his young players a go against North Korea.
On Monday, Butler proved himself a man of his word, as he benched forward Ritu Porna Chakma, midfielder Monika Chakma and defender Sheuli Azim and replaced them with Mosammat Sultana, Airin Khatun and Arpita Biswas respectively.
But after his young brigade conceded four goals in just 23 minutes, Butler brought in Sheuli in place of Arpita.
As the first half ended, the scoreline read 7-0. Ritu and Monika then entered the fray in the second half, but that did little to an already shell-shocked Bangladesh side.
Fielding inexperienced players against a side that’s 96 rungs above Bangladesh in the FIFA rankings may seem like madness, but to be fair to Butler, there was some method to it.
“What I tried to do is limit their workload. Because bear it in mind, this result, whether we lost 1-0 or 10-0, won’t really matter because our objective is the Myanmar game.”
Bangladesh will next face South Korea on Thursday, a side ranked 19th and realistically out of the reach of Maria Manda and Co.
Their third and final group-stage match will be against Myanmar, ranked 55th, and a team Bangladesh had beaten 2-1 in last year’s Asian Cup qualifiers.
With the team set to play three matches in eight days, Butler wanted to ensure his best players had something left in the tank when they face Myanmar on September 21, the only team they have a realistic chance of beating.
They [North Korea] play a tempo which our girls are not used to. In truth, we are not good enough at this level to play against the quality of that team,” Butler summed it up.Peter Butler, head coach of the Bangladesh women's football team
But his bid to keep the players fresh exposed the lack of depth in the country's women’s football.
Bangladesh had faced North Korea earlier this year in the Women’s Asian Cup, where the margin of defeat was 5-0.
Just a few months later, with Bangladesh trying out some fresh faces, that margin doubled.
And this dearth of players is not accidental, but the direct result of an administrative failure.
The Women’s Football League (WFL) had its first-ever season in 2011-12, then known as Dhaka Metropolis Women's Football League.
Just after two editions, it was put on hold for six seasons, before finally returning in 2019-20.
The 2025-26 season was its seventh edition, one that took place after the 2024-25 edition was scrapped owing to a fund crunch.
A total of 11 teams took part last season, but all of Dhaka’s major football clubs, which compete in the men’s league, were absent.
Dhaka’s traditional clubs have always been reluctant to form teams for the women’s league. Bashundhara Kings used to be the only exception, as they competed and won in three straight seasons, before dropping out ahead of the 2022-23 season, claiming unreasonably high salary demands from its players.
The South Korea game will probably be very much similar to what you have seen today, but we’ve got to go back, we have got and get a little bit of a shakeup and see where we go from here.Peter Butler, head coach of the Bangladesh women's football team
In all three seasons, Bashundhara practically signed up the entire national team, and dominated every opponent with ease on their way to the trophy.
After Bashundhara left, Nasrin SC followed the same blueprint to forge a path to the trophy in the 2023-24 season and Rajshahi Stars did the same last season.
“What you got to remember is that we don’t have a bona fide league,” Butler said, while explaining that he had fielded inexperienced players against North Korea to give them a taste of top-tier, competitive football, which they don’t get to experience in their own league.
A better league would go a long way to improving the depth of talent in women’s football. But even with a richer pipeline, the gulf between the two sides would most likely have been too much for Butler’s side.
North Korea is a giant in women’s football at the continental level, having won the Asian Cup thrice and three golds in the Asian Games.
Still, they are yet go past the quarterfinal level at the Women’s World Cup – just an indicator of how much Bangladesh is still lagging behind from the highest level.
All of Bangladesh’s achievements in women’s football have come at the South Asian level.
The country only just took its first footsteps at the continental level when Ritu Porna and Co competed at the Asian Cup for the first time in Australia earlier this year.
Bangladesh’s rise in women’s football at the South Asian level has been inspirational, but teams like North Korea are still a few levels above. A scoreline like 10-0 against them, while definitely embarrassing, was never out of the realm of possibility,
“They [North Korea] play a tempo which our girls are not used to. In truth, we are not good enough at this level to play against the quality of that team,” Butler summed it up.
After a defeat of such a huge margin, the first instinct is to hit the panic button, and call for wholesale changes. A few overzealous members of the football fraternity may even begin mourning the premature death of the country’s women’s football.
But none of that is required.
Bangladesh are still a top side at the South Asian level, which can compete against mid-tier Asian teams but have some way to go before they can challenge the top sides from this continent.
The players who have become inspirational figures are still who they were before the North Korean tie – a hard-working bunch, doing their best under trying circumstances, fighting for the Bangladesh flag with all they have.
The problems plaguing Bangladesh’s women’s football are well known, and the remedies are not out of reach.
Bangladesh have only taken the first few steps on their journey in women’s football, Ritu Porna, Monika, Maria are the first generation which will hopefully inspire the next to climb to the next level.
The journey to the top of any sport is gradual, and takes decades.
Along the way, there will be many reality checks, like the one against North Korea.
What’s important is the players learn from such experiences and not get bogged down by it.
Mile and her teammates have only two days to recover from the psychological blow of such a heavy defeat, pull up their socks and face another tough challenge against South Korea.
Butler predicted that, “The South Korea game will probably be very much similar to what you have seen today, but we’ve got to go back, we have got and get a little bit of a shakeup and see where we go from here.”
Butler's words carry the weight of experience: a shakeup is coming, not a shutdown. For a team still taking its first steps at this level, that distinction is the only one that really matters right now.