Argentine Open 2010 – Day 5

La Dolfina down Pilará-Piaget at Palermo

By Herbert Spencer

La Dolfina Peugeot dominated Pilará-Piaget 17-11 in the 117th Argentine Open Championship Saturday, with 10-goal superstar Adolfo Cambiaso scoring more than half his team’s goals on penalty conversions in Argentina’s national stadium at Palermo.


This puts reigning champions La Dolfina in the finals of the world’s highest-rated tournament for the sixth consecutive year.


La Dolfina, a 39-goal team, showed their superior player and pony power early on, taking a 3-0 lead over 33-goal Pilará-Piaget in the first chukka and increasing it to 9-1 in the second. By halftime, having held their opponents scoreless in the fourth period, Cambiaso’s side were ahead 13-4.


To their credit, Pilará-Piaget’s defense managed to deny La Dolfina any heavy scoring from the field. Of the 12 goals Cambiaso scored, 9 came from penalty shots and another from a corner. Frustration over penalties showed as 9-goaler Sebastian Merlos of Pilará-Piaget received two yellow cards.


 Pilará-Piaget fought back valiantly in the second half and surprisingly held La Dolfina scoreless in the sixth and eighth periods. But they were simply outclassed in the end, with La Dolfina holding their lead to finish the match six goals up.


In the abierto final on 11 December, La Dolfina will face the winner of this Sunday’s match between 2009 finalists Ellerstina and La Aguada, who have unluckily lost 9-goaler Javier Novillo Astrada to an ankle injury.