“We have learned many things in the tournament and have identified grey areas. In the last two weeks we have improved a lot but there is an immense scope of improvement. I am happy that things are going the right way,” said Harender to the media persons after their 1-2 loss in the finals to Netherlands.

“We have enough time to prepare for 2010 World Cup and if we continue improving like this, then we can even win the World Cup. We have a tight schedule ahead as we are leaving for Australia Feb 11 and from there we tour New Zealand Feb 19. The boys will have a good exposure there,” said Harender.

Talking about India’’s defeat in finals, where the team failed to covert five penalty corners, Harender said, “The overall game was good but we have to accept the fact that only one can win.”

“We did get some penalty corners but it is not always possible to convert all of them.”

India lost the match 1-2 to the Netherland, who had outplayed Olympic Champion Germany 7-1 in the last league match on Saturday.

Both the teams were goalless at the end of first half. But, in the 44th minute, Sandeep Singh sounded the board with a sharp low shot on the right of Dutch goalkeeper to put India ahead.

The Dutch team, however, soon came from behind and levelled the score.

But it was the Netherlands team scored the winning goal to clinch the title in the decisive minutes of the match.

Earlier, India and Netherlands both failed to convert their first penalty into goals but Hertzberger scored his second goal of the match through penalty corner.

Incidentally, India have not won a match against Netherlands for last 13 years. Its last win came in January 1996 in the Olympic qualifiers.

India had drawn both their matches in the tournament against the Netherlands (4-4 in the first and then a 2-2 draw in the second leg of the tournament). (ANI)