After a long talk with our coach Tony, we decided to change. This wasn’t as effective as we thought it would be because we were told to be in the Lobby of the hotel at 3:45pm and no one was there. This was because all of our electronic devices are taken from us for concentration reasons and reception forgot to send the wake up calls. Even with this problem, everyone got 5 minutes late, some rooms got 8 minutes late, but one room never arrived so our coach ordered that we left without them, and we did. Tony took this lateness problem as a lack of respect and he gave us another speech, he said that: “I have left all of my family in Cuba, this means that you are in front of my family right now. If there are no results, and instructions are not followed then I don’t think of placing my family in front of water polo, they don’t deserve that. If this continues I am going back to Cuba”. Tony has been very stressed lately due to personal and team issues.
The game started with Piero in position 1, Morales in 2, I was at 3, Santi was at 4, Noriega at 5 and Diego at 6. Nick was one of the guys who is in the main team that didn’t arrive to the lobby so he missed this game. We only had 3 subs, tis meant that few changes were going to be made and that our limits were going to be enlarged. Before the game vs. USA started, we all hugged each other and entered the pool together, we made a circle at the center and I told the team: “Remember that they are like us, they have two legs, two arms and two eyes. Don’t think that they are the USA and lets go place some respect and play for our country. Play with Peru in your chest, do it for you, for Tony, for us, for the whole Peru, lets go get them”! The game started and the Americans got the ball but we stole it immediately. They doubled Diego and I was left alone, I got the ball and shot… GOAL! We were beating USA 1-0, they tied us 1-1 and then Diego created an expulsion. We formed correctly and with just 2 seconds left of play Santi scored the 2-1. With 16 seconds left of the game, USA takes a time out. 3 seconds left… USA scored, we are tied 2-2.
The game continued like this, very tight, never had this happened in a game Peru-USA. Santi was expelled of the game due to 3 20 second foul accumulations. Eduardo entered in his replacement, he played well. The game was 6-4, I scored my third goal of the game, 6-5. Diego expelled another player and we formed the 3-3 with an extra man for just 20 seconds. I was playing outside of the 3-3 formation got the ball and made a bounce shot through the face of the goalie and scored… 6-6!!! I remember that I thought to myself, Augusto, you need to score, this is your shot.
In the last quarter, Tony changed the game play. We were losing 6-8 and we were told to do the M, it’s a time of zonal defense where 3 shooters are left free with two defenders in between them swimming like crazy. I knew this was not going to work, every time we do this play we get scored, vs. Mexico, Chile, etc. I knew we had to continue on playing press but we had to follow the coach’s direction. I knew this because we were tired, there were no subs, and we were only playing with our heart. We did what we were told, and didn’t score a single goal that quarter and got 3 goals scored. Morales, Diego and I had 2 20-second fouls, one more and we were out of the game, and we had to be careful. I felt like Manel Estiarte in that game when he wrote in his book: “few seconds left of the final. Our coach said to play press but I knew that we had to play zonal, I did what I was told to do and they scored in the last second and tied the game.” I felt like that… Only that it was not an Olympic final!
The game ended 11-6, I played well, the team played well and Tony was kind of satisfied. This was a historical score. Last time we had played vs. the US we had lost by almost 17 goals! From these games we learn a lot, we played well, we scored 6 goals and got our confidence back, we have to maintain it now.
The game started with Piero in position 1, Morales in 2, I was at 3, Santi was at 4, Noriega at 5 and Diego at 6. Nick was one of the guys who is in the main team that didn’t arrive to the lobby so he missed this game. We only had 3 subs, tis meant that few changes were going to be made and that our limits were going to be enlarged. Before the game vs. USA started, we all hugged each other and entered the pool together, we made a circle at the center and I told the team: “Remember that they are like us, they have two legs, two arms and two eyes. Don’t think that they are the USA and lets go place some respect and play for our country. Play with Peru in your chest, do it for you, for Tony, for us, for the whole Peru, lets go get them”! The game started and the Americans got the ball but we stole it immediately. They doubled Diego and I was left alone, I got the ball and shot… GOAL! We were beating USA 1-0, they tied us 1-1 and then Diego created an expulsion. We formed correctly and with just 2 seconds left of play Santi scored the 2-1. With 16 seconds left of the game, USA takes a time out. 3 seconds left… USA scored, we are tied 2-2.
The game continued like this, very tight, never had this happened in a game Peru-USA. Santi was expelled of the game due to 3 20 second foul accumulations. Eduardo entered in his replacement, he played well. The game was 6-4, I scored my third goal of the game, 6-5. Diego expelled another player and we formed the 3-3 with an extra man for just 20 seconds. I was playing outside of the 3-3 formation got the ball and made a bounce shot through the face of the goalie and scored… 6-6!!! I remember that I thought to myself, Augusto, you need to score, this is your shot.
In the last quarter, Tony changed the game play. We were losing 6-8 and we were told to do the M, it’s a time of zonal defense where 3 shooters are left free with two defenders in between them swimming like crazy. I knew this was not going to work, every time we do this play we get scored, vs. Mexico, Chile, etc. I knew we had to continue on playing press but we had to follow the coach’s direction. I knew this because we were tired, there were no subs, and we were only playing with our heart. We did what we were told, and didn’t score a single goal that quarter and got 3 goals scored. Morales, Diego and I had 2 20-second fouls, one more and we were out of the game, and we had to be careful. I felt like Manel Estiarte in that game when he wrote in his book: “few seconds left of the final. Our coach said to play press but I knew that we had to play zonal, I did what I was told to do and they scored in the last second and tied the game.” I felt like that… Only that it was not an Olympic final!
The game ended 11-6, I played well, the team played well and Tony was kind of satisfied. This was a historical score. Last time we had played vs. the US we had lost by almost 17 goals! From these games we learn a lot, we played well, we scored 6 goals and got our confidence back, we have to maintain it now.