Nerves cost us against Australia, but I am proud of the team: Sjoerd Marijne

India women’s hockey team coach Sjoerd Marijne admitted nerves got the better of his side in its goalless draw against Australia, adding that reaching the fifth-sixth place playoff at the World Cup is still a significant achievement.

India succumbed to the pressure of a must-win match and were knocked out of semifinal contention after being held to a goalless draw by Australia on Sunday.

“It looked like there were nerves. We didn’t play the game we wanted to play. It was not fluent, there was no rhythm in passing and receiving and there were a lot of unforced errors,” Marijne said.

“It’s not that we can’t do it, but I don’t know why we couldn’t do it. We know we can do much better than this. Everyone is very disappointed.”

India will now play the fifth-sixth place classification match, a position Marijne believes the team can take pride in reaching after making significant progress in recent months. “But if you had said five or six months ago that we were going to play the fifth-sixth position match, nobody would believe us. I also told the girls that we really need to learn from this,” he said.

The Dutchman said India’s inability to convert their opportunities proved costly in the game. “This was our first setback. We didn’t lose and holding Australia to a draw is also a positive, although we needed to win this. In these kinds of matches you have to be there and avail the chances you get,” he said.