Brandon Phillips Named MVP
Despite leading for most of the game, Palm Beach Equine needed an overtime chukker to win the USPA Sun Cup Sunday at Grand Champions Polo Club.
Leading last weekend’s champion Travieso by as many as four goals in the fourth chukker, Palm Beach Equine rallied for a 12-11 overtime victory in front of a large crowd and worldwide ChukkerTV audience.
Canadian Brandon Phillips, 37, enjoying one of his finest seasons in the sport, was named Most Valuable Player.
MVP Brandon Phillips of Palm Beach Equine drives downfield. Photo by Rob Bowman.
Phillips scored a game-high nine goals including the game-winner and played well defensively. It’s the second spring tournament Phillips has won. The first was with Psycho Bunny.
“It’s great to get a win especially against Travieso which obviously was the team to beat this season,” Phillips said. “To be the first team to be able to beat them is always fun. It was a really tough strong, well-mounted team. We couldn’t make too many mistakes.
“We missed two or three should-be goals so instead of going up by three, they turned around and we were only up by one,” Phillips said. “There were a lot of missed chances we had and they took advantage of it.”
Before the overtime chukker, Phillips said there was no real plan other than to win the throw-in. Phillips, however, playfully pointed to the goal like a baseball player pointing to the outfield before hitting a home run.
“It just happened, the key was win the throw-in which we did,” Phillips said. “We won the possession, got it downfield and made them make mistakes. We happened to be in the right place. I knew we had it when I went to the line. It was time to end that game, I was tired.”
eo Calle of Travieso tries to bump Martin Estrada of Palm Beach Equine out of the play. Photo by Rob Bowman.
Palm Beach Equine (Martin Estrada, 4, Brandon Phillips, 5, Facundo Obregon, 6, Scott Swerdlin, 0) and Travieso (Tony Calle, 2, Carlucho Arellano, 5, Julio Arellano, 8, Teo Calle, 0) were evenly-matched teams and battled to a 2-2 tie in the opening chukker despite winds gusting up to 20 miles per hour.
“Everybody played great,” Swerdlin said. “I expect to win every tournament, that doesn’t mean I am going to win them. It just means you try your best. Sometimes you click and sometimes you don’t. Some days you’re lucky, and some days you’re not. I’m just thrilled to be playing polo and playing polo with my friends.”
Palm Beach Equine took advantage of Travieso’s missed scoring opportunities and turnovers in the second and fourth chukkers to shut them out, 3-0 and 2-0.
Palm Beach Equine led after the second (5-2), third (7-5), fourth (9-5) and fifth (10-9) chukkers.
Travieso found its offensive punch in the fifth chukker, outscoring Palm Beach Equine, 4-0, to trail by only one at the end of the fifth chukker (10-9).
Estrada drew an uneven rideoff penalty enabling Phillips to convert a 30-yard penalty shot to open the sixth chukker and take an 11-9 lead.
But back-to-back goals from brothers Carlucho at 2:26 and Julio Arellano with 48 seconds left sent the game into overtime.
“Julio is such a fantastic player and we had a really nice balanced team,” said Swerdlin, who shook off a nagging arm injury to play. “It could have gone either way. It was that good a polo.
“They’ve got great polo here at Grand Champions,” Swerdlin said. “It’s exciting and it’s great fun to play. You’re playing with your friends so it’s completely different than any place else. We’re happy to play.”
Even with Phillips at the penalty line to win the game, Swerdlin wasn’t taking anything for granted.
“I didn’t think we had it, you never know,” Swerdlin said. “I always hate to see sudden death end in a foul, but that’s polo.”
Obregon added two goals and Estrada had one for Palm Beach Equine. Carlucho Arellano scored a team-high six goals for Travieso. Julio Arellano had three goals and Tony Calle added two.
Tony Calle’s third chukker 8-year-old Bay mare, Jaeger, was selected Best Playing Pony.
Palm Beach Equine joins Travieso (Tony Calle, Carlucho Arellano, Julio Arellano, Teo Calle) and Psycho Bunny (Piki Diaz Alberdi, Brandon Phillips, Andrew Seibert, Kris Kampsen) as the first three spring tournament champions.
The remaining spring tournaments at Grand Champions are this weekend’s USPA Eastern Challenge, May 14-17, Polo Gear Challenge Cup, May 21-25, The Memorial, May 24-25 USPA NYTS and May 28-31, Santa Rita Memorial.
One of the biggest highlights of the spring season has been the use of state-of-the-art technology featuring live streaming, instant replay, challenges and team review from Chukker.TV.
In January, 2014, Grand Champions Polo Club became the first polo club worldwide to offer instant replay and team review much to the delight of players and patrons in hopes of improving officiating and quality of play at all levels of polo.
Chukker.TV is providing unduplicated state-of-the-art technology to provide instant replay. In addition, the technical staff has live-streamed games that have been viewed around the world on its website.
Chukker.TV also partnered with Roku, Inc. to bring polo to fans live in the comfort of their homes at no cost. Chukker.TV has a channel on Roku.
Grand Champions,with its five well-manicured fields and turnkey facility, is enjoying its finest spring season in the history of the club, which opened in 2008. Everyone is welcome to enjoy the games. Admission is free.
2015 POLO ON DEMAND
Grand Champions Polo Club, featuring five world-class fields, has a full schedule of tournaments from January to May. Let our polo experts create a turn-key experience including top pros to bring out the best in you and your team. Lessons are available.
2015 SPRING SCHEDULE
May 7-10, USPA Eastern Challenge; May 14-17, Polo Gear Challenge Cup; May 21-25, The Memorial; May 24-25, USPA NYTS; May 28-31, Santa Rita Memorial.
GRAND CHAMPIONS POLO CLUB
WHERE: 13444 Southfields Road, on the corner of South Shore Boulevard and Lake Worth Road, Wellington, 33414.