May 5th ’07: Today Canada defeated U.S.A. 7-4 in the finals of the Zone A playoffs in Costa Careyes, MX. This win secures Canada the opportunity to participate in the FIP World Cup Finals in Mexico 2008. Canada and Mexico will be the two teams representing Zone A in the World Cup Finals in Mexico 2008.
MVP was awarded to Marcelo Abbiatti of Team Canada. Chris Nevins’ horse won Best Playing Pony for the U.S. Team. Marcelo Abbiati’s horse won Best Playing Pony for Canada’s team.
With great playing by Marcelo Rodríguez Abbiatti the national representative from Canada won the only ticket for the North, Central America and the Caribean Zone, after defeating the US Representative by 7 goals to 4.
With the presence of frenchmen Patrick Gerrand Hermes, president of the International Polo Federation, Canada and the United States gave a great performance for all the crowd that gathered to witness the game in Costa Careyes in the Mexican Pacific. With an oustanding polo playing by the recently naturalize Canadian Rodríguez Abbiatti the North American team proved that quality and perseverence turned to be a great formula for the qualification to the World Championship.
The game showed emotions from minute one through the last second, however, the Canadian team always showed superiority and only once the Canadian Team was reached by the Americans when Chris Nevins tied it at two goals each.
Regardless of all modifications that the U.S. team tried to do, with great efforts from Brandon Phillips and Cody Offen at the end Canada showed to be a better team. In the forth chukker, Rodriguez Abbiatti earned the MVP award by scoring three goals and making the big difference that earned his team the final pass to the World Cup.
President of the International Polo Federation, Mr. Patrick Gerrand Hermes, acted as Master Ceremony and congratulated the winning team of the Playoff Championship of the North, Central America and the Caribbean. He also congratulated the U.S. and Guatemalan Teams for and ¨outstanding performance and great effort,” as he put it.
After this tournament, Canada is added to the list of the qualifiying teams for the Polo World Championship Mexico 2008. Here is the current list of teams and countries who have qualified for the World Cup Finals 2008.
Brazil (Current World Champion)
New Zealand (Oceania)
South Africa (Africa)
England ( Europe)
Spain ( Europe)
Mexico (Host)
Canada (No. American)
The eigth and last place for the World Championship will come out from the Play Offs of the South American Zone between the representatives from Chile, Uruguay and the powerfull team of Argentina.
Source: Tres Comunicación Media and P.R. and Michele Everett.
May 3rd, ’07: Today Team’s Canada and USA both won their games sending them undefeated into the final game where they will meet for the first time during this tournament.
Team USA changed their line up today in their game against Guatemala. Both alternate players on Team USA, Joseph Stuart and Nick Cifuni, played in place of Miguelito and Santi Torres. It was part of their strategy to defeat a tough Guatemalan Team.
Only one team will advance from the Zone A playoffs to head to the World Cup Finals in Mexico City in 2008. Saturday will be a big Final to see which team wins the Zone A Playoffs to secure a spot in the FIP World Cup Finals in Mexico City 2008.
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Zone A Playoff Results
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| Game 1 | April 29th | Team USA 11 vs. Dominican Republic 9 | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Game 2 | April 29th | Canada 12 vs. Guatemala 5.5 | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Game 3 | May 2nd | Canada 14 vs. Dominican Republic 3 | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Game 4 | May 2nd | Team USA 6 vs. Guatemala 5.5 | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Next Games On Saturday, May 5th | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Game 5 | May 5th | 4:00pm – Guatemala vs. Dominican Republic | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| FINAL | May 5th | Canada 7 def. United States 4 | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Results provided by Michele Everrett. | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
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Photo Galleries & Other Information
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| Photos of Team USA Misc. – Misc. Team USA Photo Gallery | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Photos of All Teams – April 29th – Photo Gallery | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
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Teams
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| Marcelo Abbiatti and Chris Nevins in the Final of the Zone A World Cup Playoffs, Costa Careyes Mexico. | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
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| Marcelo Abbiatti and Chris Nevins in the Final of the Zone A World Cup Playoffs, Costa Careyes Mexico. | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Note: The Dominican Republic team is a Ghost Team standing in for the Playoff. The Caribbean missing team alleged major force motives. The Dominican quartet was being awaited since last Thursday, but early in that morning the Organizing Committee got the news about the team not coming to play the quadrangular which will grant passes to the international appointment for next year.
Ricardo Mihanovich, ambassador of the International Polo Federation and director of the competition, noted the issue, even when he did not inform of the punishments it may carry for the Dominican Polo.
Despite that incident, everything is set up for the dispute, which will start this Sunday. The pass will be disputed between the American, Guatemalan and Canadian teams. The Organization Committee announced that a Mexican team will take the place of the Dominican team at the draw, with the intention of avoiding problems with the game programming – therefore, official quartets will keep their playing rhythm. The name of the players of the substitute team is different every day: Roberto Gonzalez Gracida, Georgio Brignione, Rogelio Igartua, Miguel Go’mez de Parada, Raul Ramirez, Luis “Tato” Olazabal, Guillermo “Billy” Steta. Source: http://www.polomexico.com/ingles.htm
Update May 3rd, ’07: Team USA Update in Costa Careyes by Michele Everrett.
Hi Everyone! – I hope you all have had a chance to check out the website www.uspolodocumentary.com to see that Team USA and Team Canada both won their games on Saturday against Dominican Republic and Guatemala, respectively.
I’ve also posted a few pictures of the guys and the fish they caught the other day! Late tonight, I will post the scores and pictures from today’s game. I apologize that I don’t have any action shots from the games. I’ll try to get some today.
Here’s the line-up for today, May 1st:
4pm: Canada vs. Dominican Republic
6pm: USA vs. Guatemala
I’ve been passing along your well wishes to Team USA. It really helps a lot and gets them fired up! Keep them coming! Also, a lot of the guys check what’s going on via the message board on www.polobarn.com if you want to post some positive messages on there.
Thanks for reading. I’ll be back tonight with the scoop…
GO TEAM USA!!!
-Michele
PS: Nick Cifuni, Team USA Alternate, turned 29
yesterday!!!
PLAYOFF SCHEDULE
Friday, April 27
8:30pm – Draw for Practice Games and Horse Pools
Saturday, April 28
4:00pm – Practice Game 1
5:30pm – Practice Game 2
Sunday, April 29
4:00pm – Guatemala vs. Canada
6:00pm – Dominican Republic vs. United States
Monday, April 30
Rest
Tuesday, May 1
Rest
Wednesday, May 2
4:00pm – Canada vs. Dominican Republic
6:00pm – United States vs. Guatemala
Thursday, May 3
Rest
Friday, May 4
Rest
Saturday, May 5
4:00pm – Guatemala vs. Dominican Republic
6:00pm – Canada vs. United States
(Source: Mexico’s FIP Website www.polomexico.com)
Qualification Tournaments For All Zones
Zone D (Africa, Asia, Oceania) Playoffs
February 26 – March 6, 2007
Auckland Polo Club, New Zealand
Participants: Australia, India, New Zealand, Pakistan, South Africa
Winners: South Africa and New Zealand
Zone C (Europe) Playoffs
April 20 – 29, 2007
Santa Maria Polo Club, Spain
Participants: England, France, Italy, Holland, Spain
Website: www.santamariapoloclub.com
Zone A (North and Central America) Playoffs
April 29 – May 5, 2007
Costa Careyes Polo Club, Mexico
Participants: Canada, USA (to be decided between Guatemala, Costa Rica, Dominican Republic)
Website: http://www.polomexico.com/
Source: http://www.fippolo.com/fip.php?lg=1&cat=1
Zone B (South America) Playoffs
TBD
Other Web Sites Covering Results of Zone A Playoffs . . .
1) Game results and stats will be posted on www.uspolodocumentary.com at the end of each gameday. We will be scoring the games independently of the FIP Officials so that we can update our website immediately following the games.
2) More photos of Team USA will be posted this week on www.uspolodocumentary.com
GO TEAM USA!!!!!!