Mike Azzaro in blue, battling for the ball in 2012 game with Hong Kong.
Certainly the 2013 Westchester Cup is in the books, but the 12-11 overtime win doesn’t sit well for American 8-goaler Mike Azzaro. It was Azzaro, you might recall, who missed out on participating in the 2009 Westchester Cup due to a broken collarbone just days before the international competition, so the 2013 re-match was an important event for him.
“If we only had the horses,” he lamented over a cup of coffee recently in Wellington, Florida. “I know we could have beaten them.”
Azzaro was in Wellington to compete in the Prisa Invitational at the Grand Champions Polo Club, a last warm-up before the United States team (Azzaro, Nic Roldan-8-goals, Tommy Collingwood-4-goals and Ulysses Escapite-4-goals) meets England in the opening game of the 2013 Fortune Heights Super Nations Cup at the Tianjin Goldin Metropolitan Polo Club in China.
Both Azzaro and Roldan saddled up against the English team this past summer in the 12-11 heartbreaker, and they will have an opportunity to get reacquainted with the Tomlinson brothers again next week.
Luke Tomlinson (7) and Mark Tomlinson (7) will be headlining the English entry that will include Henry Fisher (4) and Nacho Gonzalez (6), and Azzaro and Roldan will be more than happy to meet them on level ground.
“We’re all going to be pretty evenly mounted in China,” said Azzaro, last year’s Super Nations Cup MVP. “We won’t be at the disadvantage we were in England,” he grinned. “I’m really looking forward to it.
Last year Azzaro was joined by Kris Kampsen (6), Jeff Hall (7) and Mason Wroe (4), and lost in the finals of the tournament to Argentina, 8-7. This year they’re looking to win it all.
Joining the American and English teams in the competition will be an Argentine entry that will field Martin Pepa (5), Marianito Obregon (7), Michel Dorignac (7) and Martin Donovan (5), with reserve Juan Martin Obregon (5); and an international contingent that will play as Hong Kong. That team will feature New Zealanders John-Paul Clarkin (8) and Dirk Gould (5), Brazilian Joao Ganon (7) and John Fisher (4) from the United Kingdom.