PH polo guns for gold vs Malaysia
Credit to Author: The Manila Times| Date: Sat, 30 Nov 2019 06:28:33 +0000
AUGUSTUS Aguirre and the Philippine men’s polo squad shoot for a gold medal in the A Division 4-6 Goals when it plays against Malaysia at 3 p.m. this Saturday in the 30th Southeast Asian Games at the Inigo Zobel Polo Facility in Calatagan, Batangas.
Aguirre, 26, who has been playing professional polo in Australia for many years, said the Malaysians were expected to adjust and double their efforts since the Philippines has a half goal handicap advantage because Malaysia has more high ranking players.
Despite having a psychological edge having defeated the Malaysian team in the preliminary round, the businessman told The Manila Times on Saturday during a phone interview that Malaysia has a lot of experience and more balance.
“They (Malaysia) are going to be tough mas madami sila na magagaling na players sa amin (they have more good players). They are more balance and much talented,” said Aguirre, who will be joined by teammates Eduardo Lopez, Stefano Juban and Tomas Bitong.
The Philippines lost to Brunei in last Sunday’s opener (8-8 ½), but rebounded from that setback after outplaying Malaysia (8-1/2-5) last Tuesday before routing Indonesia (6-4 ½) last Thursday.
Malaysia beat Indonesia (11-7 ½) in the first day before defeating Brunei (8-5 1-2) also on Thursday.
Malaysia earned the highest point to reach the Finals over Brunei after winning by more than two goals. Even if all these three teams have the same (2-1) win-loss standing, the Philippines and Malaysia qualified for the finals because of their highest goals scored over Brunei in the preliminary.
Aguirre, however, said it’s going to be “another new day.”
“Even if you beat them the last time, Finals is absolutely a different game. You are not going to think about what happened the other day,” added Aguirre, who expected a highly-physical game from the Malaysians.
“Mas my experience sila at mas mataas ang pressure sa akin kasi ako ang nagdadala ng team (I am the most experienced player in the team so the pressure for me is high). Sure ball na babanatan ako ng Malaysia,” said Aguirre, who holds the highest rank among Filipino polo players at No. 4. JOSEF RAMOS