Michelob Ultra Wins 40-Goal Challenge

By Alex Webbe

 

American 9-goaler Mike Azzaro scored six goals, including the winning one with 18 seconds to play, in leading the Michelob Ultra team to a 12-11 win over EFG Bank in the 2009 40-Goal Outback Challenge Cup to benefit the Polo Players Support Group Saturday afternoon at the International Polo Club in Wellington.

 

Featuring the top players in the game, the match was played to benefit a charity that provides financial assistance to players and grooms who are seriously injured or ill.

Opening goals from Azzaro and Pablo MacDonough gave Michelob Ultra a lead that they would hold until the end of the fifth chukker. 

 

After leading throughout the match, EFG Bank tied it up at 10-10 in the fifth period on the strength of two goals from Facundo Pieres and a single goal from brother Gonzalito.

MacDonough scored at the opening of the sixth chukker, but a brilliant individual effort by Gonzalito Pieres locked it up at 11-11.

 

With time running out, Azzaro took a pass from MacDonough, and with 18 seconds left in the game, scored the winning goal for Michelob Ultra.

 

“I was happy we could do this for Adolphus (Busch),” said Azzaro, the game’s leading scorer.  “He has done so much for the game of polo and the entire polo community.”

A member of a number of Busch -sponsored high-goal teams, Azzaro credits Adolphus

With providing him with the horses that gave him his first 10-goal rating, a handicap that he held for 13 years.

 

Pablo MacDonough was named game MVP while a 5-year-old mare named Roberta received Best Playing Pony honors.  Roberta is owned by Roberto Gonzalez and was played by Mike Azzaro.