NEW DELHI: Leicester City and Chelsea are two clubs who have found out about the fickle nature of the league structure. Kings one year, paupers next and vice versa.
Closer home, one team has so far gone down the way of the Foxes. Jaypee Punjab Warriors, who beat Uttar Pradesh Wizards 1-0 here in a Hockey India League group match on Monday, were the champions last year. This edition? Fifth and out of contention for the knockout stages. It’s not been their season at all, and coach Barry Dancer admitted as such at the post-match press conference.
“The tournament as a whole has been disappointing from our perspective,” he said. “We had lofty ambitions, and simply haven’t met them.”
Like most teams struggling for form and rhythm, they were just too leaky at the back, an issue they failed to address. Some of their scorelines don’t make for good reading. 4-10 (Dabang Mumbai), 1-6 (Delhi Waveriders), 0-7 and 5-7 (Kalinga Lancers)... a narrative emerges from all those collapses at the back.
The 64-year-old, who won silver with the Australian team in the 1976 Games, blamed it on inconsistency. “As a team, we’ve been too inconsistent throughout and that’s not allowed us to get any sort of platform.”
Fronting up to the media is a difficult task after a long, hard season, but Dancer was forthright in his opinion. “In the end, we put ourselves under too much pressure (and left ourselves with a lot to do in terms of qualifying for the finals weekend). Our best two games of the tournament were our ninth and tenth games. The scoreline against Kalinga in our last game (they lost 7-0) did not show that.”
He, however, jumped to the defense of Sardar Singh. Questions have been asked of him over the last 12 months, but the coach was having none of it. “His role with our team hasn’t changed much over the last few years,” he said.
“He’s an outstanding leader, a competitor and someone who has the desire to make an impact for the side. I’m happy to have him as captain for my team.”
Wizards did squeak through to the finals weekend in Chandigarh, but coach Roelant Oltmans said his side will have to work on a few issues, including trying to score more goals when presented with clear-cut opportunities.
swaroop@newindianexpress.com