I could see why Rafael had sounded so impressed when he recounted the story of Fede having won a game by making a ring shot. The ball that the teams below us were chasing after was made of solid rubber and bounced off the stone walls like a ricocheting bullet. Its trajectory would have to be exactly right for it to ever pass through the ring—the slightest miscalculation and the ball careered wildly off the ring in another direction. No wonder driving a ball through the ring instantly won the game—it was an almost impossible shot to make.