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A C T I O N
La Dolfina, Ellerstina, Alegría, La Aguada,
Cría Yatay and La Irenita – are allowed to
make only one change in their line-ups.
In the first of the semi-finals, the
titleholders, La Dolfina, defeated Cría Yatay
by an impressive 27–4, the highest ever
score on Palermo’s no 1 ground. Such a big
gap was due to the fact that La Dolfina didn’t
repeat horses and they had to display their
potential after ten days without competition.
They played brilliantly against a contender
who played open polo, as though the large
difference in handicap didn’t exist.
Alegría and Ellerstina met up in the
second semi-final. Things were very different
as the all-Pieres line-up had to fight if they
wanted to make it to the championship
match. And so it happened – Alegría fought
hard until the sixth chukka, with Ellerstina
holding a narrow one-goal lead. But based
on their best horse string, both quality-wise
and quantity-wise, Ellerstina just needed
two chukkas to produce the goals they
needed to win 15–11.
And so, the most highly anticipated
moment of the season finally arrived: the
Argentine Open championship match,
a true delight for every polo fan worldwide.
The perfect scenario for the thrilling
match was all set – a bright Saturday
afternoon with 13,000 people packed into
the grandstands overlooking Palermo’s
no 1 ground, which looked in great condition
despite the ten previous games.
The final could be split into two parts.
The first part saw Ellerstina displaying
fast and powerful polo, led by Facundo
and Nicolas Pieres; their aim was to show
that they could repeat their win at the
Hurlingham Open. La Dolfina, meanwhile,
were a bit overwhelmed and seemed
unable to put up their usual play. However,
the average gap in the score rarely went
beyond a couple of goals, mostly thanks to
Nero and Stirling – Nero was true to form in
attack as well as in defence, and Stirling
worked hard to score goals at the right time.
The second part lasted only two-and-
a-half chukkas. La Dolfina finally woke
up. With Nero’s and Stirling’s attitude, plus
the brilliant play provided by Cambiaso
and MacDonough, they made a fantastic
comeback and overwhelmed their rival.
At the end of the day, La Dolfina won by
four goals in their tenth Argentine Open title.
Now that the season has come to an
end, we can rank the teams, and the winners
La Dolfina are way out in front. Picture
a ten-step stairway: at the top, on step
ten, are La Dolfina. Ellerstina are next on
the eighth step, followed by Alegría on the
sixth. The rest of the teams, however,
wouldn’t rise beyond the fifth step.
Oppostite
: Nicolas Pieres
showing his 10-goal form in
the final.
Left:
La Dolfina
lift the trophy for the
fourth year in a row
T H E R E W E R E T WO B I G S U R P R I S E S I N T H E
F I R S T R O U N D , S P E C I F I C A L LY I N T H E
M AT C H E S T H AT D E T E R M I N E D T H I R D P L A C E
