Some people are blessed with a poker face; unfortunately for Thomas Dooley, he isn’t one of them.

It has been little over four months since the former US international has taken over as the Bangladesh football team’s head coach, but he has already presented enough evidence to support this claim, the latest of which came during a media interaction on Wednesday, on the eve of Bangladesh’s final Group A match against hosts Indonesia.

“Absolutely untrue!” he said in a high-pitched voice, accompanied by an involuntary shoulder-jerk and a smile trying to mask the irritation, and falling short.

The query was a simple one: is the constant talk of Bangladesh being an underdog at the FIFA ASEAN Cup 2026 demoralising the team?

“I don't know who's coming up with that the players are not motivated because we are the underdog,” Dooley continued, sounding more flustered with every word.

The fact that Bangladesh are the underdogs in Group A is hardly breaking news.

Grouped alongside Malaysia (136), Singapore (147), and hosts Indonesia (117), there is no escaping that Bangladesh, ranked 182nd, are the least fancied side. And even if anyone wanted to forget the difference in strength, coach Dooley didn’t allow it.

Right from the moment the opportunity first arose for Bangladesh to replace India and compete in the ASEAN Cup, Dooley has been expressing this pessimistic outlook.

He has used every opportunity to point out the gulf between his team and the South East Asian sides they will have to compete against. Even on Wednesday, while answering an earlier query, he didn’t let the opportunity pass.

“We always talk about that we are 181st [182nd] and we don't belong there. We want to be up in the 150s. So this is something that we need to get into. How do we get into? We have to play against teams that are maybe just two-three rankings, maybe just 10-20 [rating] points ahead of us.

“But we're playing against teams who are 30, 40, 50 ahead in the rankings, having like 60, 70, 80, 90, 150 points more than us. It is something that we need to acknowledge and we need to see that this is a learning experience.”

A coach implying his team doesn’t have the ammunition to compete against the opponents while in the tournament seems odd, no matter how much of a realist the coach may be.

On Wednesday, in his flustered state, Dooley at least presented some explanation.

“It's psychology… If we're going in and we say we're going to beat everyone over there, then they're coming up and saying, okay, we will let them know what their limits are.

“There are so many lies out there, so many things out there about what we said, what we have done. Don't believe everything you're seeing. And this is one of them. I don't think that there's anyone who's not motivated because I say we're the underdog.

“What do you want me to say? That we are the favorite? That in tomorrow’s game, we are definitely better than Indonesia, we're going to beat them? Or do we say in the media, we are the underdogs and hope that they think they're already giving up and then they don't play 100%, but we are 100% and now we can actually surprise them.”

Assuming the underdog tag to deflect all the pressure to the other side is an age-old tactic in sport.

However, when the difference between the side is too stark, using it as a ploy becomes pointless.

And so far, Dooley’s attempt to psychologically disarm his opponent and catch them off guard has, predictably, backfired.

Bangladesh began the tournament with a 3-0 drubbing against Malaysia and even with an improved showing, fell 1-0 to Singapore in the following game.

Dooley had one more chance to test out his theory against Indonesia, but alas, in a state of frustration, he has already blurted out his secret!

It’s unknown whether the opposing coach or players paid any heed to Dooley’s words, but his players certainly did.

While Dooley continued with his pessimism at every media interaction, his players have put forth a more cautiously optimistic point of view.

Star player Hamza Choudhury spoke about ‘not fearing anyone’ before the tournament kicked off, while before the Singapore match, Shamit Shome spoke about taking ‘revenge’ against the opponents for Asian Cup qualifier defeats, hinting the players did not subscribe to their coach’s psychological tactics.

While Bangladesh have justified their underdog status with back-to-back defeats, the least fancied side in Group B of this eight-team event have already made history.

Pakistan, ranked 198th in the world, got hammered 4-0 by Thailand in their opener. But they bounced back brilliantly against the Philippines, a team ranked 63 places higher, coming back from behind to achieve a 2-2 draw on Tuesday.

With the draw, Pakistan have already earned a point in their maiden appearance in a FIFA tournament, while Bangladesh sit on zero.

Pakistan needed no mind games to make history, only belief. If Dooley's underdog strategy has victims, they are the players who want to push Bangladesh football to the next level and the fans who want to see a fighter's confidence, not a forecaster's caution, before kick-off.