Indian coach Norton Matos offered no excuse for his team’s 0-3 defeat at the hands of the USA in the U-17 World cup opener but said he was not happy with the result.

Though he praised Amarjit and his boys for putting up a determined show but was critical of the way team conceded the goals.

Talking to media persons after the match , Matos said “We started the game little bit shy because we lacked experience.

“The team is going through the  transition period and need to put some problems for opponents but we failed. We are finding it difficult to make the last pass,” the coach said.

Admitting that Americans were superior side he said “As I said yesterday, that there was a big gap between our team and other teams in our group but I think we concede a stupid first goal.

“Until the half time it was possible to keep the result but in the second half we conceded another goal which shows the inexperience. For us it was important to score a goal to make it 1-2 because from that we can go for another one, fight for the result.

“However the third goal is the punishment for us. But I would like to see a 2-1 scoreline in order to fight for the result. And yes I am not happy with the result.”

On the other hand American coach John Hackworth said the victory has not come as a surprise to him” We were expecting it” but what  was surprising was the way Indians fought  till the end.
“They  (Indians) played  well, beyond our expectations” he said, adding that “we faced problems when Indian made counter attacks especially in the second session.

USA had beaten India 4-0 in the BRICs tournament in Goa but on Friday Hackworth had nothing but praise for the hosts.

Asked to rate Indian performance on the scale of ten, Hackworth said “I  don’t rate teams, every team has its plus and minus points, but  for this showing i will give the Indians ten out of ten’.

“We did miss  many chances and i think score line would have been different if we had all our chances converted” he said  and then lavished praise on Indian goalkeeper  Dheeraj Singh “Who was exceptional under the bar” adding “He  stood between us and big victory”.

The coach said he was delighted to see massive crowd in the stadium. They were well behaved and supported their own team very vigorously  which was but expected, he added.