LAHORE, June 29: Pakistan hockey coach Asif Bajwa seemed unperturbed by the team’s poor 5th position in the Azlan Shah Cup.

"In fact I have never made any claim for victory before leaving because I considered it as an experiment ahead of my main target the World Cup", Asif told journalists after holding a long two-hour meeting with Pakistan Hockey Federation (PHF) secretary Mussarat Ullah Khan on Thursday to discuss the performance of the team in the competition.

"If you see the 5th position, it is not satisfactory by all means, but my planning for World Cup gained fresh thoughts from the tournament and I believe that will help me to further improve the strategy for the mega event", he said.

The World Cup will be played in Germany in September this year. Earlier, Pakistan will also contest Champions Trophy in Spain in July.

He said Azlan Shah was not a major tournament, therefore, gaining experience from it was more important.

Asif claimed that except for one match against Argentina his team played best hockey of the tournament.

Surprisingly, Pakistan lost to lowly-rated Argentina 2-0 and that denied the team a berth in the semifinals.

Asif blamed rain as main cause for that defeat.

"The rain during the match against Argentina foiled our strategy of scoring goals on penalty-corners as it had been making the speed of the ball slow.

“We played attacking hockey and received seven short-corners against one we conceded but rain played a role of villain for my team," he claimed.

The coach, however, believed the defeat (Argentina) was a blessing in disguise as it provided him an opportunity to learn more lessons.

Asif admitted that the team fell victim to complacency after beating Holland (3-2) in the opener.

He said there was a close fight among Pakistan, South Korea, Holland, and Australia for semifinals, but the last two teams through on goal average after all four teams were tied at four points, each.

The coach was fully satisfied with the fitness standard of the boys. "The boys have improved their level of fitness and that is a positive sign I noticed in the tournament," he said.

Asif said though the defense department had showed improve performance, more work had to be done to make it more effective.

He said the youngsters Waqas Sharif, Waqas Akbar, Ihsanullah and Sajjad Anwar gave good performance and they had the ability to play important role in future.