How Kalinga Lancers Showed Why it is a Force to Reckon With

Defending champions Kalinga Lancers (reigning champions technically because they had won the last edition in 2015) backed by the Vedanta Group – showed all and sundry that they are not just much, much more than a bottom-placed side but also strong contender for the HIL crown.

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Seldom are we witness to a top-placed side being inflicted a 0-6 thrashing by a bottom-placed side in a tournament like the Lancers inflicted on Shrachi Rarh Bengal Tigers. Winless in three games, Kalinga Lancers were reduced to a bottom-placed side – a bottom-placed side not because they were one of the weakest sides in the 6th HIL but because they haven’t quite had the ‘luck’ running their way in the first three games.

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The Lancers have an overflowing of talents in their ranks with the likes of Thierry Brinkman, Alexander Hendrickx, Aran Zaleswki, Nicholas Bandurak, Arthur Van Doren, Antoine Kina and Enrique Gonzalez lending the ‘foreign firepower’ and ably backed by the exciting desi talents in the form of Angad Bir Singh, Dilpreet Singh, Boby Dhami Singh, Pratap Lakra, Sanjay Rana, Rabichandra Singh among others.

The Aran Zaleswki-captained side were ‘super unlucky’ to go down 3-4 to the Soorma Hockey Club – much like their second encounter against the Dragons, the blue-and-oranje brigade had their moments and held the lead twice only to mess it up in the end. “It was important to get a win under our belt. The 6-0 scoreline could have been different as I thought the Tigers could have one or two goals but Krishan Pathak had a great evening on the pitch,” says Kalinga Lancers chief coach Valentin Altenburg in an exclusive interview with Hockey Passion.

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It is interesting to observe that the Valentin Altenburg-coached Odisha franchise have drawn the first blood in their first three games only to lose their way. The hosts of the 6th HIL took the lead against UP Rudras before they allowed the Uttar Pradesh franchise to score thrice and seal their fate.

Against Tamil Nadu Dragons, the Lancers twice took the lead before their opponents levelled things to stretch the match into a shootout where they didn’t quite have the last laugh. “We have been playing very good hockey, and it was just that the outcome was not coming in our favor. We needed the first three games to get the cohesion going as the boys haven’t spent much time on the pitch before. The outcome is not the outcome that you like, but our performance has been strong. The whole Kalinga family was really looking for that win. We knew the points will come and the wins come if we continue to work and grow as a team together,” quips the coach, who had guided the Germany men’s team to a bronze medal finish at the 2016 Rio Olympics.

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The 43-year-old Hamburg-based coach stopped short of picking teams that are favourites to win the 6th HIL crown. “It’s tough to pick any favourites. I haven’t seen a team that have looked to win everything nor I have seen a team that will lose every game. All eight have their strengths and any one among them can make it to the knockout phase,” he makes his point.

Altenburg, who had also coached the Germany women’s hockey team at the 2022 World Cup and 2024 Paris Olympics, was impressed with the young Indian forward Bobby Singh Dhami. “I’m mighty happy to see Bobby score that goal against the Tigers. Beating goalkeepers with straight shots have never been easy in the HIL, and the way he beat Jamie Carr was outstanding.”

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The resilient performance of Kalinga Lancers must prompt other teams to take their ‘opposition homework quotient’ to another level. It’s probably a lesson for teams not to take the opposition for granted based on a team’s position in the points table because the ‘competitive gap’ between teams in the HIL isn’t much.