Although a defensive mix-up between Diego Cavalieri and Daniel Ayala gifted Borussia Moenchengladbach the winner, Hodgson saw plenty to be happy with in the 1-0 defeat.
"We gave it to them again. It's disappointing. If it had stayed 0-0 I would have been delighted with the performance. I am still quite pleased and I think we got everything we asked from the players," said the boss.
"We had three or four World Cup players playing their first 45 or 60 minutes and, of course, at the end of the game we had players who are only 15 and 16 on the field. I thought they stood up to the challenge very well.
"As in Kaiserslautern, we came close to a really good result. It was an even game but, as I said, unfortunately after 10 minutes with no pressure on us at all, we gave away that very bad goal.
"I am seeing improvements in some individual players but we haven't really had the chance to work together as a team as yet. I don't even think we're going to be together as a team as I would like us to be on August 15 as we are still reintegrating players.
"Joe and Steven played their first 60 minutes today, Jamie Carragher played 45 and Johnson 55 - we're just reintegrating players all the time. It's going to take a bit of time.
"But today was an exercise and certainly not negative in anyway other than the fact our young players must realise at this very, very high level you are judged on mistakes and if you make glaring ones, you're going to be judged very harshly."