Finals of the USPA Piaget Silver Cup
This past weekend the Santa Barbara Polo and Racquet Club held the finals of the USPA Piaget Silver Cup. All of the action leading up to this final seemed to foreshadow an intense and exhilarating showdown between Lucchese and Mansour. This could not have been more correct; as both teams battled with everything they had and were urged on every step of the way by a packed crowd.
In the first chukker Mansour jumped out to a quick 2 goal lead and sent a message to Lucchese that it would not be as easy as it was when the two met on the previous Friday and Lucchese won 15-10. Then in the second chukker Manosur continued on the attack outscoring Lucchese 3-2 to take a 5-2 lead into the third. In the third chukker Lucchese were able to start putting some offense together thanks to great passes from their captain Adolfo Cambiaso and beautiful goals from Santi Torres and Andre Weisz. Going into half time the score was 6-4 in favor of Mansour and the feeling in the grand stands was that they might be able to upset the great Cambiaso. In the fourth and fifth chukkers Mansour was able to handle every push that Lucchese made, thanks to great play form Hillario Ulloa and Adam Snow, which allowed Mansour to maintain their 2 goal lead going into the last chukker. At the beginning of the 6th chukker it looked like Mansour might be able to close the door on Lucchese for good after Adam Snow converted a penalty 3 to give Mansour a 3 goal lead with five minutes to play. However after an open goal penalty conversion and then a great nearside buckshot pass by Santi Torres to Andres Weisz all of the sudden Lucchese was within 1 with three minutes to play. In the last three minutes Adolfo Cambiaso showed why he is still arguably the best player in the world scoring two key goals to give his team the 11-10 victory in thrilling fashion. The most valuable player was Lucchese’s Santi Torres and the best playing pony was given to Adolfo Cambiaso’s 6th chukker horse Delfina Diana.
After the 1pm final we had an exhibition match which featured the two teams that did not make the final split up into two compatible teams. The teams that they came up with were Farmers and Merchants Bank: Dan Walker, Andy Busch, Lucas Criado and Jeff hall, against Grants Farm: Jared Sheldon, Henry Walker, Polito PIeres and Luis Escobar. This game though relaxed still featured some amazing out of the air mallet work and beautiful goals. In the end Grants Farm defeated Farmers and merchants bank by a score of 13-12. Next week we will have exhibitions games on the weekend as the teams prepare for the Bomabardier Pacific Coast open so come by and enjoy the action!