With Piaget teammate Sapo Caset looking on, 10-goaler Miguel Astrada retrieves the ball out of the air with his mallet. Photos – Alex Pacheco.
WELLINGTON, FL – March 9, 2013 — Behind 10-goalers Sapo Caset and Miguel Astrada, Piaget staged a furious comeback against Lechuza Caracas in the sixth chukker but fell short in its USPA Piaget Gold Cup opener.
Lechuza Caracas, which led for most of the game, held on for a 12-10 victory Saturday at Isla Carroll West.
With Piaget trailing by only one goal in the sixth chukker, 11-10, Caset had a chance to tie the game with 1:43 left in regulation.
Caset took a pass from Astrada and made a hard-charging run full force toward goal only to lose control of the ball in a crowd near the goal mouth.
After the game in the players’ tent, Caset made it a point to apologize to his teammates for missing the goal.
“I can’t believe I missed the goal to tie the game; I am sorry,” Caset said. “We had the momentum in the sixth chukker. I won’t be able to sleep tonight. If I had scored that goal maybe we are talking a different result, but this is polo.
“I think it’s just bad luck,” Caset said. “I think we are going up. The horses are doing better but not 100 percent yet and the team is not 100 percent yet. For the next game we will do better.”
In the final minute, Lechuza Caracas’ Polito Pieres, dribbling the ball from both sides of his pony, scored an insurance goal with 1:10 left in the game.
Caset led Piaget’s scoring with five goals, three on penalty shots.
Astrada, who showed no ill effects from a strained groin muscle that forced him out of the sixth chukker of the March 1 Les Armour Cup semifinals, added three goals and 23-year-old Nacho Badiola had two goals and played well defensively including stopping a potential Pieres goal.
Piaget team captain Melissa Ganzi also defended well against Pieres bumping him out of a play on his way to goal in the fourth chukker and took Lechuza Caracas player-padrone Victor Vargas out of several plays.
Pieres finished with seven goals, two on penalty shots. Seven-goaler Francisco Elizalde had three goals and Vargas added two goals. Ten-goaler Juan Martin Nero was scoreless.
“We had a great last chukker,” Piaget coach Joey Casey said. “We had a chance to tie it and we just had some bad luck. We were right there and that’s the good thing.
“The thing is we can play a lot better,” Casey said. “Lechuza played really well today. I think we’re going to be fine. We can improve; that’s the best thing about it. We’ll get better.”
Piaget scored the opening goal of the game when Badiola scored in a crowd at the 5:43 mark after Astrada came up with a big hit to get the ball downfield to Badiola.
The game was close after that with Lechuza Caracas taking a 3-2 lead at the end of the first chukker. Piaget tied the game at 4-4 on Caset’s penalty shot and Vargas came right back with a goal for a 5-4 lead at the end of the second chukker.
The teams kept it close in the third chukker with Piaget missing three scoring opportunities and Lechuza Caracas taking a 7-5 lead at the half.
“We changed some things at halftime and tried to hit the ball a little more,” Casey said. “That seemed to work. We did much better with our throw-ins in the second half and our set plays went better.”
Lechuza Caracas had a three-goal advantage in the fourth and fifth chukkers but Piaget battled back with some heart-stopping heroics in the final chukker.
With Astrada and Caset taking turns creating plays, Caset scored on a 30-yard penalty shot with 4:41 to trail by only two goals. Forty seconds later Caset unleashed a 120-yard shot to goal with 3:40 left closing the gap to one goal.
“We thought in the last chukker if we scored one more goal things were going to change,” Astrada said. “For being our first game with Nacho we played good. We have to adjust a couple things and we can do a little better.
“They played very well; they were well-organized,” Astrada said. “I think they are one of the favorites. To do well against them is good for us. We are not out of it; we can still do well. We haven’t played too much together so the more we work the better we will get.”
Badiola, 23, the son of former 9-goaler Juan Badiola, is making his IPC 26-goal debut this season.
“I didn’t play well,” Badiola said. “I need to make some adjustments and play better. I have to go back a bit more and try to get a little more rhythm. The team played good but I can do better for sure. Lechuza is always a tough team.”
Vargas was pleased with the win but said his team also can play better. He was also impressed with Grand Champions Polo Club-based Piaget.
“Sapo is a good player; he had that very nice goal in the last chukker and Melissa was playing well,” Vargas said. “We need to play better. For now it’s okay. It is a tough tournament; all these teams are nice and players are good.”
In the other Saturday game, ERG defeated Orchard Hill, 16-11. Nine-goaler Tincho Merlos had a game-high seven goals and Paco de Narvaez added six goals.
Grand Champions Polo Club-based Audi plays C. V. Whitney Cup champion Alegria Sunday at noon on Field 2. The game will pit brothers Gonzalito and Nico Pieres of Audi against brother-in-law Mariano Aguerre of Alegria.
Piaget next plays Orchard Hill on Thursday at 10 a.m. Both teams are 0-1.
First played in 1974, the 26-goal USPA Gold Cup has been played at various polo clubs until it found a home at IPC in 2007.
When the USPA awarded IPC the Gold Cup in 2007, the International Polo Club Palm Beach, home of the 26-goal C. V. Whitney Cup Tournament and U.S. Open Championship, sealed its place in history as host of all three legs of the Triple Crown.
Piaget is saluting IPC’s tenth anniversary with the launch of its new luxury Polo FortyFive Black watch which will join their successful collection of polo watches first introduced in the late 1970s.
USPA PIAGET GOLD CUP AUDI/PIAGET SCHEDULE
Sunday, March 10: Alegria vs. Audi, noon
Thursday, March 14: Piaget vs. Orchard Hill, 10 a.m.; Zacara vs. Audi, 4 p.m.
Sunday, March 17: Valiente vs. Audi, 10 a.m.; Piaget vs. ERG, 3 p.m.
Wednesday, March 20: Piaget Gold Cup Semifinals, 2, 4 p.m.
Thursday, March 21: Butler Handicap Semifinals, Gold Cup subsidiary, 10 a.m., noon
Sunday, March 24: Butler Handicap Final, noon; USPA Piaget Gold Cup Final, 3 p.m.
Tuesday, March 26: U.S. Open begins, schedule, pairings to be announced.
AUDI/PIAGET TOURNAMENT LINEUP
March 7 – March 24, USPA Piaget Gold Cup
March 26 – April 21, 109th Maserati U.S. Open Polo Championship
GRAND CHAMPIONS POLO CLUB
WHERE: On the corner of South Shore Boulevard and Lake Worth Road, Wellington.
INFORMATION: There are great field side views for tournament action at the home base of pro teams Audi and Piaget. Everyone is welcome to watch polo during the spring and fall tournament season and other special events including the Buzz Welker Memorial Junior Tournament, Women’s Championship Tournament and Gay Polo League Tournament.
Sharon Robb for Phelps Media Group, Inc. International
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