Campeones Otra Vez

The 2023 TSJJ 2-goal tournament was one of the most fun and competitive tournaments I have ever played in. With teams having 3,4 and even 5 goalers playing in a 2-goal tournament, I knew this wasn't going to be a normal 2-goal. To begin, the team I was playing for, La Sarita, had a relatively tough draw, facing off against a talented and young Durus polo team consisting of Ginecito, Imran, Tengku Ryan, and Danial. We managed to beat Durus in our first game thanks to some clutch penalties from Agustin and beat JamJar polo as well in our second game. Playing against the JamJar polo team was a great experience for me, being able to play against Garvy Beh, and witnessing that unique half-swing that I had only ever seen him do on TV before. (It looks way more impressive in person.)

After our first two wins, we qualified for the semis and handily beat a slightly handicapped Jogo polo team with their main pro out with a fractured wrist. Then it was on to the finals where we would once again play the Durus polo team, who after losing their first round, willed their way to a penalty shoot-out to get into the semis, and eventually meet us again in the finals. Durus Polo had a chip on their shoulders and were improving each game, so this was definitely going to be a battle, and a battle it was. Durus went into halftime with a 3 1/2 lead. We rallied at half time and focused on what each of us in the team needed to do, especially with marking the man, and managed to get the game to 6-6 1/2 Durus polo leading. With a nerve-racking penalty from Agus with 13 seconds left, we ended up winning by half. What a game!

After every match, I felt like I improved and learned new things that helped me to play better. I started to understand how to take players off Agus, to give him time and space to work his Superman magic, but also started to understand when I needed to go up and let him hit. Of course, this is something I am still working on but is one of the breakthroughs that I think I made this tournament, not only learning to take my man, but the man of the pro.

During this tournament, I was also tasked with playing a more defensive position at times, which is not what I am used to as an aggressive #1 or 2, and there is still a lot of room here for improvement in terms of decision-making but it was good to expose myself to this new position and find things that need improving. Penalties were also something that I focused on this tournament, not that I took a lot of them, but I just started practicing them more, and have gained much more confidence rocketing the balls high through the goalposts.

Overall this has been an amazing tournament and definitely not one that I will forget anytime in the near future. Shout out to the La Sarita team for being more of a family than a team. Thanks to Ameer for always asking me to be part of this team - Agustin, for coaching me always and helping me improve each match - and Kayser and Emily for being such positive influences on this team, making huge impacts even though they may not know it.

La Sarita are once again, CHAMPIONS.

Full video of the final below: