We were stoked to be playing for the final games, this was far beyond any predictions ! In the same time we felt kinda bad for some other teams which would have or did beat us and which didn’t go through, but c’est la vie…
Saturday, as we just managed to be within the top 14 of the B group that put us 29th overall and logically the first game was against a good team from the top of the table. We face another team from Seattle and we took an early lead from a powerful long shot from Antoine. Our opponents played very fast and we were struggling to contain their attacks, a highlight was my wicked reverse shot over the bar from an impossible angle which offered us our second goal when they already had 4, a few minutes later it was over 5-2. The second game was against Iron Ponies from Geneva, Clem’s team who organised most of the event. That game turned out to be surprisingly close, I stayed goalie most of the time blocking all their shots but one which equalised ours. 1-1 was the score at the end of the 12min match so we had to go to golden goal. For some reason quite a lot of spectators were present shouting and cheering, loads in favor of the local team. At one point I remember taking an opportunity which I failed to keep and going back in defense I rushed my hops and felt on our goalie leaving only one player up, Iron Ponies took advantage of this power play and scored their second and winning goal. It was over for Guacapolo, the 25th best team in the world in 2012, but damn it was close !

Anything can happen at the Worlds: Iron Ponies next game of the looser bracket was against Spring Break and they won 5-3 taking out one the favorite team.
The world champs Guardians were playing amazing polo: executing incredibly precised passes, playing so clean with no check or hack and showing a self control under pressure like no other team. It was a bit of a clash with Call me daddy rougher style and they couldn’t pierce their stressed 2 or 3 goalies defense this time.

Big thanks to my teammates who played really well and were easy going on and off the court. Also congrats to the Clem and everyone who made this event happen and finally Geneva is an awesome city !