Lechuza and Alegría are the finalists of the Bronze Cup
After a few postponements due to rain, finally today the semifinals of the Bronze Cup, the first trophy of the second edition of Polo Challenge, took place in Casa de Campo. Pitirri-El Palenque, this season’s favorite, defeated Casa de Campo by 9-8. it was a tough game, both teams were quite close to achieving their goal, and exchanged goals on equal parts throughout the match. The Bensadón duo, father and son Pancho and Rufino was the absolute highlight, scoring 7 of the 8 goals their team Casa de Campo got.
Earlier this week, teams Casa de Campo, Power Infrastructure and Alegría-El Milagro defined by penalty shootouts the order on the semifinals. Lechuza Caracas, the only undefeated team on the tournament, had already secured its spot after defeating Alegría-El Milagro on Sunday. Finally, on Tuesday the penalty shootouts took place, and it was defined that Power Infrastructure would be pitted against Alegría-El Milagro, and Casa de Campo would try to beat mighty Lechuza for a spot on the finals.
The first semifinal was the game between Alegría-El Milagro and Power Infrastructure. The first chukka was Power Infrastructure’s, but Alegría-El Milagro overcame the first difficulties, and took the lead on the second period. Throughout the rest of the game, Power Infrastructure led by just a one goal difference, until the very last period where the teams tied the scoreboard and had to go to overtime. Alegría-El Milagro’s patron Fred Mannix scored the defining goal and the spot on the finals was for the Canadians. It was an excellent and clean game, where Fred and the Toccalino brothers (Santiago and Ignacio) showed off great skills.
The second semifinal had Lechuza Caracas take on Casa de Campo. Even though the locals were able to put up together a solid team with a killer duo formed by Bete Donovan and Pancho Bensadón, they were absolutely overpowered by Lechuza Caracas, that has gotten even stronger this season. The team led by record-breakers Pelón Stirling and Juanma Nero, was able to donate the game with broad goal differences from the start, the final score was 12-8 in favor of the Venezuelan powerhouse.
On Sunday, January 29th, Lechuza will face Alegría-El Milagro in a game that’s already raising anticipation on the Island. The final will take place at 4pm in Casa de Campo, but doors open at 2pm to see the subsidiary finals between Power Infrastructure and the local team, another promising game. After both games, all guests are invited to join the After Polo party, featuring a live performance by the band “Solo por Hoy”.