Vancouver: Coach Bob Houghton tasted success on his first assignment with the Indian football team when they beat the Chinese U-20 side 2-1 to clinch third place in the Vancouver Whitecaps Nations Cup.
N P Pradeep and Manjit Singh were on target for the Indians while Tang Jiashu pulled one back for the Chinese outfit.
The result should give some confidence to the Indian think tank and players in the lead up to the Doha Asian Games in December as China are considered to be one of the fancied teams in the competition.
Later in the title clash of last evening, Michael Chopra missed from the spot as Vancouver Whitecaps FC took the Nations Cup defeating Cardiff City FC, Wales, in a penalty shootout after both teams were locked goalless after 120 minutes.
India started brightly in the third place playoff and had a lot of the ball in the initial stages but could not create any chances.
Gradually the Chinese team came into the match and both sides start attacking the rival goal.
N P Pradeep broke the deadlock just before the half-hour mark when he headed in a Renedy Singh corner.
But India went down to 10 men five minutes before half-time when forward Sushil Kumar Singh was sent off after he missed an overhead kick and hit Chinese defender Zhou Yun on the head with his left foot.
The numerical advantage encouraged the Chinese to peg India back and create more chances.
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