Houghton: Asian Cup loss a learning curve

India coach Bob Houghton said his side would learn plenty from their 4-0 Asian Cup defeat to Australia on Monday.

A double from Tim Cahill either side of goals from Harry Kewell and Brett Holman gave Australia a comfortable win in their tournament opener, but Houghton was happy with how his side competed against Asia’s top ranked team.

“I thought my team were very good today. You can be proud of that performance if you were in my position today,” Houghton said.

“We played a very good team today. It’s not by fortune that Australia are the number one team in Asia.”

“The boys worked hard, they kept going even when they were 4-0 down and that’s the first time we’ve played against a team of that quality.”

“Nobody likes to lose 4-0, that’s for sure, but all in all it was a good experience for us.”

“We kept our shape, we kept our discipline, we kept going and I thought we were a little bit unlucky. I’m pleased with our boys and I think they’ll improve from it and learn from it.”

India are competing in the Asian Cup for the first time in 27 years, and are not expected to make it out of their group, which also contains South Korea and Bahrain.

But Houghton was hopeful they could give a good account of themselves in their next two matches.

“I think they can walk off the field with their heads held high and now we need to prepare for the next two games against Bahrain and Korea Republic that are also difficult,” he said.

“We need to do the same in those games but set plays are difficult for us because physically we struggle. That was one of the issues.”

Despite India’s massive population, the development of football in the country has been slow, with the national team sitting 142nd in the FIFA rankings.

But Houghton believes a decent showing at the Asian Cup could change that.

“The vehicle that will move Indian football forward is the national team. When the national team becomes successful, I think the interest in football will follow it,” Houghton said.

“I hope that the fact that we’ve managed to get to the Asian Cup for the first time in nearly 30 years will encourage the government and the federation to spend money on training facilities.”