NEWS

Story courtesy of International Polo Club Palm Beach.

One game remains in the 18-goal season at the International Polo Club Palm Beach (IPC) in Wellington, Florida, with CK Polo (Kristos "Keko" Magrini*, Martin "Facha" Valent, Santino Magrini*, Joaquin Panelo) and La Fe (Lucas Escobar*, Robi Bilbao, Francisco Elizalde, Louis Devaleix) set to meet in the Ylvisaker Cup Final on Sunday, February 6 on the U.S. Polo Assn. Field.

Four competitive teams have produced exceptional polo, treating spectators to numerous close matches, and thrilling overtime victories. With the upcoming Ylvisaker Cup Final, all four teams have found their way into at least one final, highlighting the evenly-matched polo that began with the first game of the year.

Through 12 games, 25% have needed overtime to determine a champion, including both the Iglehart Cup and Joe Barry Memorial finals. Furthermore, half of all games have been decided by just one goal, making every attack and defensive play that much more important in each team’s success. The small difference between the four teams is further evident by the incredible stat that each team has produced at least three victories each, yet none are undefeated.

On average through the 18-goal season, 20.4 goals are scored per game, making 11 goals the key number a team needs to score to have the best chance at victory. When a team reaches that mark, they hold a 10-2 record, with the only losses coming on a narrow 12-11 victory for La Fe over Beverly Polo (Bill Ballhaus, Lucas Diaz Alberdi, Jorge "Tolito" Fernandez Ocampo Jr., Hilario Figueras) and a 16-11 victory for CK Polo on a 12-goal outburst from Keko Magrini against Patagones (Benjamin Avendano, Joaquin Avendano, Santiago Wulff, Tomas Garcia del Rio).

How teams have generated offense provides an interesting look into 18-goal polo both from the field and the penalty line. La Fe has produced the most offense from the field, scoring 69% of their goals in open play, while Patagones leads the charge from the penalty line, where they have scored 52% of their goals. With most teams scoring between three and five penalty goals per game, penalty shooting can often decide the outcome of a game, especially with the narrowing margins that have been seen throughout the season.

Penalty 2’s have been converted 95% of the time, with Penalty 3’s closely following at 86% accuracy among all teams. Where accuracy decreases is from the 60-yard line, when the increased difficulty which includes defending players impacts shooting to just 36% accuracy on 50 attempts. Keeping that in mind, Patagones’ Garcia del Rio has shot an incredible 64% from the 60-yard distance, propelling him to the top of the scoring leaderboard for the season.

Utilizing immense horsepower, every team has received noteworthy individual performances that have stood out from the rest of the field. The top four players in scoring each represent a different team with Garcia del Rio scoring 40 goals, followed closely by 35 from Ocampo Jr., 27 from La Fe’s Elizalde and 26 for CK Polo’s Keko Magrini.

16-year-old Magrini’s 12-goal showing against Patagones produced the highest individual goal total of the season, while also leading CK Polo to the highest team total of 16 goals. On the other hand, La Fe conceded just six goals in their first victory of the Ylvisaker Cup, producing an interesting dynamic entering Sunday’s final and conclusion of the 2022 18-goal season.

*Kristos ‘Keko’ Magrini, Santino Magrini and Lucas Escobar are Active Team USPA Members. Team USPA is a USPA program designed to enhance and grow the sport of polo in the United States by identifying young, talented American players and providing mentored training and playing opportunities leading to a pool of higher rated amateur and pro players and the resultant giveback to the sport of polo.

All Photos courtesy of ©David Lominska.