Delhi head coach Harm van Veldhoven was happy with team's performance vs KolkataDelhi Dynamos FC drew their last home game 0-0 against Atlético de Kolkata at the Jawaharlal Nehru Stadium, New Delhi on Tuesday. Dynamos head coach Harm van Veldhoven said he and his team were surprised by the extent to which Kolkata chose to play defensively.In the post-match press conference, he remarked, “They were playing with three defensive midfields in the middle. Our attackers were unable to find free players or free space. That is why I had later substituted Mama (Shylo Malswamtluanga) in. In such a game you only get a few chances, but unfortunately we were unable to take the ones we got.”The Dutchman was again questioned about Alessandro Del Piero’s absence, after the Delhi marquee player did not feature. Van Veldhoven replied, “Today was not the moment to bring on a lot of players. All players were working very hard. The quality of players was so good that we didn’t make many changes.”Van Veldhoven found cause for optimism in his team’s performance. He declared, “Many teams are losing against teams like Kolkata so in that regard we did fine. I can’t change the result anymore. We did lose 5-6 points at home, which we shouldn’t have. But it is okay; we will keep making progress. We still have two more games to go. We hope to get the points in Pune and Chennai.”Stijn Houben, defender for the Dynamos, explained the team’s strategy of dealing with Kolkata striker Fikru. “Fikru is a good player. We had discussed before the game that he was a physically very strong player. So, we had decided to wait for his first touch and then put pressure on him. I think it worked out pretty well for us.”Midfielder Adil Khan, who was also present at the conference, said that his role against Kolkata had been specifically planned by the team. Said Khan, “The coach had trust in me and he had a plan for me. As Jakub Podaný (Atlético de Kolkata’s in-form midfielder) has good speed, throughout the game I was trying to mark him all the time. First half I had a little problem but, in the second half, I did well.”
