Ipoh: For Paul van Ass, the third-place finish in his maiden assignment as India's new hockey chief coach was undoubtedly a creditable performance and the Dutchman said that he has managed to achieve his target in the tournament by learning "six beautiful lessons".
From the very beginning, Van Ass said that the 24th Azlan Shah Cup was a platform to gather knowledge about the team and the past one week has been a great leaning curve for the boys.
"My target was very simple, to learn lessons everyday and in this tournament we had six beautiful lessons," he said after India defeated Korea in the shoot-out to secure the third place in the prestigious six-nation tournament at the Azlan Shah Stadium here.
"From day one I said 'let us learn lessons and whatever happens let them happen'. It is a high performance sport. You also saw me changing a few players' positions during this tournament. So we have learned a lot and we can take it from here," he added.
Elaborating on the specifics, the Dutchman said, "We have to be careful that we do not go out of the tournament early and play for nothing that is one lesson we have learnt. And the second lesson was to get the defence right under pressure and we succeeded partly in that."
India produced a spirited performance to beat Korea 4-1 in the penalty shoot-out in the third-fourth place play-off match after both the teams were locked 2-2 at regulation time.
India scored both their goals though field strikes from last match hat-trick man Nikkin Thimmaiah (10th minute) and Satbir Singh (22nd), while Korea scored from penalty corners converted by You Hyosik (20th) and Nam Hyunwoo (29th).
In the shoot-out the Indians were clinical as Akashdeep Singh, skipper Sardar Singh, Rupinder Pal Singh and Birendra Lakra converted their tries with consummate ease as against Korea's one.
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