Talandracas Polo Team won the Quarter-final of the Cartier Queen's Cup on Sunday 9th June, winning 12-8 against Desert Palm Polo Team at Guards Polo Club to earn the third Semi Final spot.
Talandracas’s Polito Pieres was the top goal scorer of the tournament coming into this match and added to his tally. Team-mate Rosendo Torreguitar, who had a standout game, also excelled at finding the flags. In fact Talandracas’s consistency put them ahead 3-2 at the end of the first chukka and kept them in front for the rest of the match. Talandracas failed to score in the fourth but had created enough of a barrier to protect themselves from such a situation. Desert Palm had several opportunities to get on terms with Talandracas – this game was closer than the scoreline suggests – but the Desert Palm sent too many penalties wide.
Talandracas move through to play Black Bears in the Semis.
The Teams:
Chukka Breakdown:
Score Progression:
Game Statistics:
Selected Match Highlights:
Possession swings back and forth as Desert Palm try to neutralise the Talandracas attack, but Ale Muzzio is quick onto the ball and sends it through the posts:
Torreguitar takes out his man and hits an accurate defensive backhand straight to the stick of teammate Polito who runs the ball upfield before sending a long range pass to Muzzio who is perfectly positioned in the goal mouth to flick the ball through with a little angled backhand: