Fulton praises team’s intelligence, fitness for Asia Cup triumph

Craig Fulton had not been too completely satisfied early on within the Asia Cup, however on Sunday, the India head coach was a content material man.

“It was difficult. A lot of things didn’t fall in place for us… at the same time, it was a good performance, a good result,” Fulton mentioned.

“Finals can be sketchy. They could go 2-2 and then you’re looking for a winner. But to get 4-0 up and then 4-1, I am happy with the position at the end,” he mentioned.

The South African’s monitor file with the Indian facet has been spectacular — three gold medals and a bronze — however Fulton sought to create extra depth to not simply stay on high in Asia however be a severe challenger to the larger groups in Europe.

“Yeah, I would (call it a really good tournament team). That’s a pretty good record But the main thing is we want to be No. 1 in Asia but we also want to have more depth in our squad.

“We’re just getting there. There are two different types of hockey — Asian hockey and European hockey. SoAll the power sits in Europe, in a way, and obviously Australia. We’re trying to build depth so that we can challenge the teams in Europe,” he mentioned.

Asked about essentially the most spectacular facet of the group, Fulton singled out the team’s dedication and intelligence. “The team is super intelligent. Whatever we throw at them, they try and do it. We do a lot of homework on opposition and ourselves, more on ourselves, but when they commit to doing something, they do it well.”

The team’s fitness additionally got here in for reward. “If you play seven games in 10 days, that’s really difficult and we were physically stronger than all the teams here. That was the No. 1 thing to do. We prepared well, we executed, didn’t start so well but finished really strong”.

The one factor he admitted wanted work on was extra to do with dealing with the general match scenario. “The pressure needs to be on in the beginning and then less and less, instead of starting slow and putting yourself under pressure. We did it a little bit the other way,” he admitted.