Need to improve defence: Van Ass

India’s 3-2 win over France in their opening match of the FIH Hockey World league Semifinals was unconvincing but head coach Paul van Ass said that he was satisfied with the result.Van Ass said he had not expected the campaign opener to be an easy outing and his boys managed to earn full points by scoring a late winner in a Pool A match.

“Winning the first match is the important thing. What was significant was not that we allowed the rivals too much space inside our territory, but the fact that we managed to score the third goal and earn full points,” said van Ass after the match.“There is always some unpredictability at the start of any tournament,” he added.

India scored the winner two minutes from the final hooter through Ramandeep Singh to pull off a 3-2 win over France and begin their campaign on a winning note.

France’s livewire striker Brisac said it was a massive disappointment to concede the goal with just two minutes left on the clock.“We were confident and we played a good game, but there is no consolation for conceding the goal so late in the match,” said Brisac.“We wanted at least one point from this game and came very close to securing that,” he added.

‘Manage pace in defence’

Van Ass has admitted that his team needs to improve its space management while falling back to defend its citadel.“We should have been better in managing space,” said van Ass, adding, “it was always difficult to fall back and catch up when mounting an attack”.India allowed plenty of space in their own territory to France, placed nine spots behind them in the world rankings, and the coach felt that the French strikers were quite fast and built up the counter-attacks.

“Maybe we were not quick enough to close the angles when falling back. It is a learning process and does take time. They came in really fast. It is not easy to close in so quickly, but I would like to see that happen,” insisted van Ass.

Belgium coach surprised

Women’s team’s reluctance to launch an attack despite trailing in the opening encounter against the home team has left Belgian coach Pascal Kina surprised.

Belgian captain lieselotte van lindt scored the lone goal of the match in the 35th minute to help the hosts clinched a 1-0 win.“I would have expected India to go all out into the attack in the last quarter as they had a lot to lose in this match, but it did not happen,” said Kina. “I must say I was surprised by India not throwing everything into the attack. They were a goal down and would not have gained anything by the score-line staying that way,” he added.