By IANS,
New Delhi: Australia’s national coach Ric Charlesworth was surprised to see Pakistan adopting the European style of play against them in the last Pool B match of the Hockey World Cup here Monday.
“It’s a bit of a paradox. Pakistan was defending and counter-attacking just like the European teams do and we were defending,” said Charlesworth, after his team qualified for the semis as Pool B champions with a 2-1 win.
Charlesworth said Pakistan were a better lot compared to others teams in the group, but were just “unlucky”.
“I have gone through some of the statistics of this Pool and Pakistan have been the best in some areas. They have beaten Spain, who defeated England and India, the two of the best teams in the group. Against India they were unlucky as two of their hits were stopped by cross bar,” he said.
Despite the win, Australia didn’t play convincingly as they did against India, Spain and South Africa.
Charlesworth said there are still some weak areas his team needs to sort out before the semis.
“We are still improving as a team and a lot has to be done. I wanted to see my team in the semis in the second week of the tournament and we are there. From here on we have other goals,” he said.