Three matches today and two go to extra time and golden goals. Not a bad start to this high-goal tournament.
League Three
UAE 10 – 9 Salkeld.
Jack Richardson has moved from Black Bears to the UAE team in this competition, but made this change a successful one by scoring UAE’s first goal of the match. Salkeld (rec 1 goal) failed to score in the first, allowing Sheikha Maitha’s team a 3-1 advantage after the first. Roles were reversed in the second in this match played at Dubai though as Salkeld scored four times from the sticks of James Beim and Miguel Novillo Astrada, while the UAE team failed to score at all. This gave the green shirts of Nick Clarke’s Salkeld a 4-3 advantage at the end of the chukka. Although Salkeld failed to score in the next two chukkas, UAE made hard work of improving their score, with Lucas Monteverde and Pablo Macdonough scoring just three times, to take their overall score to 6-5 at the start of the 5th chukka. Beim scored twice in the fifth for Salkeld while MacDonough only found the flags once, ensuring the scores were level going into the sixth chukka. This time both sides scored a double, thus ensuring extra time and a golden goal. This was produced by Monteverde, so making his patron Sheikha Maitha’s debut in the UK high-goal a winning one.
League Four
Cortium 10 – 9 Sumaya
Extra time and another golden goal ensured Cortium- Jaeger LeCoultre’s victory over Sumaya at Guards Polo Club this afternoon. Sumaya kicked off proceedings with a goal from Facundo Sola, only for Cortium to convert a penalty and Eduardo Novillo Astrada to produce a great run to goal, so making it 2-1 at the first bell. Sadly penalties were a hallmark of the second chukka resulting in two goals for Sumaya and one for Cortium. However the latter also produced a field goal thanks to Francisco Elizalde, giving Cortium a narrow 4-2 lead going into the third. Some great play from Sumaya’s Sola and Hilario Ulloa levelled the scores in this chukka, despite Cortium successfully converting another penalty. So at 5-5 this game was clearly still very much on for both teams. Sumaya pulled away slightly in the fourth (7-6 to Sumaya) but then failed to score at all in the fifth, allowing Cortium to come back and reclaim a one-goal advantage (8-7 to Cortium). Sola, who had played hard all afternoon was not deterred and kept fighting, producing two goals to keep Sumaya’s hopes alive. Elizalde too was at the heart of the action for Cortium and a goal from this seven-goaler ensured extra time. Both players were instrumental in the extra time too. Sola failed to convert two penalties, despite some initial confusion that the ball had crossed the line, allowing Elizalde to produce the golden goal to give victory to his patron Adrian Kirby.
League Two
Les Lions 17 – 9 EFG Bank Aravali
In a more clear cut match, a powerful and impressive Les Lions team roared to victory over EFG Bank Aravali, defeating Karan Thapar’s side 17-9 at Les Lions’s own ground. The writing was on the wall for the Aravali team in the first half of the game as they were down 11-2 at half-time. Agustin Merlos was the star of the Les Lions team, scoring 11 of his side’s 17 goals. Les Lions team have always impressed in this tournament but have yet to win the trophy for their patron Joachim Gottschalk but a performance like this will surely inspire them?
Tomorrow’s matches
La Bamba de Areco v Black Bears at Black Bears at 12noon.