British Open Final: A last review of the teams
By Alex Webbe
For only the second time in six years neither Dubai nor Zacara will be taking the field for the final of the Gold Cup for the British Open at Cowdray Park Polo Club on Sunday afternoon..
Dubai (Josh Cork, Martin Valent, Diego Cavanagh and Adolfo Cambiaso) was eliminated in quarterfinal play this year in a 12-10 affair against Zacara (Juan Martin Nero, Lyndon Lea, Rodrigo Andrade and Jack Hyde).
Zacara was eliminated in semifinal play, losing to King Power Foxes (Top Srivaddhanaprabha, Hugo Lewis, Gonzalo Pieres and Facundo Pieres) in a one-sided 15-9 thrashing.
Emerging from the carnage of preliminary, quarterfinal and semifinal play is the UAE Polo Team (Jose Araya, Jr., Lucas Monteverde, Pablo MacDonough and Santiago Stirling) and King Power Foxes with identical 6-0 records.
UAE Polo made their way to the final with wins over RH Polo, HB Polo, King Power and Thai Polo in preliminary play. They knocked off Salkeld in quarterfinal action before pushing around Apes Hill in semifinal play for a 14-8 win and a trip to the final.
King Power Foxes beat La Indiana, Sifani, Talandracas and Salkeld in early competition. They snuck past RH Polo in the quarterfinals before hammering Zacara 15-9 in the semifinals.
The UAE opponents in British Open matches had a collective won-loss record of 10-18. The combined records of the opponents of King Power Foxes are 7-21.
The King Power Foxes scored a tournament high 83 goals going in to the final while UAE Polo held opponents to a total of only 41 goals, a tournament low.
The King Power Foxes are averaging 13.8 goals per game on offense while surrendering an average of 8-8 goals, giving them an average of +5 goals per game. UAE is averaging 13.3 goals per game on offense and yielding an average of 6.8 goals per game for a +6½ goals per game.
.Although UAE and King Power Foxes haven’t met on the field yet this season, UAE’s 10-goaler Pablo MacDonough filled in for an injured Adolfo Cambiaso on the Dubai team in the final of the Cartier Queens Cup, a game Dubai lost in overtime, 11-10.
Neither team has ever won the British Open, though players on both teams have. Gonzalito Pieres and Facundo Pieres teamed up with Jean Francois Decaux and Thomas Garbarini on the 2009 La Bamba de Areco that won the Gold Cup. More recently, Facundo Pieres played with Zacara when they took the title in 2013.
Pablo MacDonough played with a Dubai lineup that won in 2010 and teammate Lucas Monteverde won the British Open with Dubai in 2005.
There is plenty of veteran talent in the nine and 10-goalers on the field but the deciding factor may lie in the remaining players. UAE Polo has been playing with 16-year-old Jose Araya, Jr. at the Number 1 position and Santiago Stirling at the Number 2 slot with Lucas Montverde and Pablo MacDonough filling out the lineup. King Power Foxes will take the field with the Pieres brothers, 20-year-old Hugo Lewis and a talented patron in Top Srivaddhanaprabha.
King Power Foxes will be looking for their twelfth consecutive 22-goal win this season (11-0) and their second consecutive title (won the Cartier Queens Cup) while UAE enters the final with an impressive 9-2 record over the course of the Cartier Queens Cup and the Jaeger-LeCoultre Gold Cup for the British Open.
The game is scheduled to be played at 3pm at which time the records and statistics of the two teams may not matter at all.