Dubai and La Bamba De Areco through to Gold Cup Finals
By Antje Derks
Today (Thursday) saw the semi-finals for this year’s Veuve Clicquot Gold Cup played at Lawns, Cowdray Park Polo Club to decide who enters Sunday’s final.
The first match saw Dubai take on and convincingly beat Les Lions II 16 – 9. Within seconds of the first throw-in Adolfo Cambiaso had streaked up the field to score the first goal for Dubai. A missed penalty by Augustin Merlos meant Dubai kept their lead and Christian Laprida quickly extended it after stealing the ball from under the noses of the mighty Merlos brothers. Augustin Merlos took a tumble just before the end of the first chukka but remounted after having the doctor and his mother check him over.
Dubai played well as a team with goals coming think and fast. And not just from Cambiaso. Rashid Albwardy scored a cracker, having been set up beautifully by Martin Valent. Augustin Merlos managed to claw a couple of goals back for Les Lions from a 60 and a 40 yard penalty, but by the end of the second chukka Dubai were still four goals ahead 6 – 2.
By half-time Dubai had extended their lead 9 – 5. Max Gottschalk, patron of Les Lions II scored a great goal for his team, but Cambiaso countered immediately as if he was mocking them. Every time Les Lions scored a goal, Dubai scored two. Going into the sixth chukka Les Lions had set themselves a behemoth of a mountain to climb. Dubai were leading them 15 – 7. Indeed, despite two cracking goals by Sebastian Merlos they never looked dangerous and when Cambiaso slotted another one past the post it really was all over.
The second match between Sumaya and La Bamba De Areco was a much closer affair. Sumaya took an early two goal lead with fabulous goals from Nachi Du Plessis and Hilario Ulloa. However, towards the end of the first chukka La Bamba came back and were only a goal adrift (3-2) going into the second.
Sumaya were playing a great game, defensively they were faultless, with some brilliant interventions by Milo Fernandez Arouja and Nachi. By half time Sumaya had opened up a three goal advantage leading La Bamba 7 – 4.
Indeed they maintained their lead over La Bamba by a goal up until the first minute of the sixth chukka. Unfortunately, whilst involved in a high-speed run to goal Milo and his horse came crashing down. The horse was taken off the field in a trailer, while paramedics worked on Milo for a good 15 minutes. Eventually he walked off the field and attempted to re-mount, but it was evident that he was in severe pain and his team decided to substitute him with seven goal player Lucas James.
Without the steadying influence of Milo on the field, Sumaya’s defence went to pieces, allowing Facundo to equalise (10-10) with four minutes to go. La Bamba went ahead mid-way through the sixth chukka for the first time in the match after another superb field goal by Facundo. Despite Sumaya being awarded a penalty 5b with one minute to go, Milo’s accident seemed to have shaken them to the core and they just couldn’t pull any more goals out of the bag. Final scores: La Bamba De Areco 11; Sumaya 10.
The Gold Cup final will be played at Lawns at 3pm this Sunday featuring Dubai and La Bamba De Areco.