La Indiana Hold On For Victory Over Bardon
The fourth day of the 2018 Copa de Oro saw La Indiana narrowly defeat Bardon 12-11 at the Santa Maria Polo Club.
The match was the tightest result of the tournament so far, with little separating the two teams throughout the game. Bardon were let down by their discipline, committing 14 fouls, leading to eight penalty attempts for Facundo Pieres, of which he converted six. Producing more scoring chances from the field, Bardon were not accurate enough in open play, shooting just 39% to match La Indiana’s efficiency in the game. The impressive 10-goal performance from Pieres proved to be just enough to hang on for the one-goal victory.
The opening chukka saw Andras Tombor and Matias Machado score a goal each to give Bardon the early 2-1 lead. Outshooting La Indiana 7-4 through the opening two chukkas, Bardon was unable to separate themselves from La Indiana due to their indiscipline as they committed six fouls, leading to three penalty goals for Pieres. Scoring all four goals for his team in the second chukka, Pieres pushed La Indiana into the 5-4 lead. The back and forth game continued in the third chukka, with Bardon pressuring La Indiana to produce more shot attempts for the third consecutive chukka, while Alejo Taranco scored two goals, one from the field and penalty line resulting in a 6-6 tie at halftime.
The second half produced a similar style of play with Bardon producing more shot attempts but their inaccuracy keeping them from grabbing hold of the lead. With the narrowest of margins going to ultimately decide the game, it was foul trouble that ended up being Bardon’s downfall late in the game. Four fouls in the fifth chukka seemed to provide La Indiana with the advantage they needed but two missed penalties from Pieres, his only two misses of the game, kept Bardon deadlocked with La Indiana heading into the final chukka. Bardon found themselves on the wrong end of the whistle in the final chukka, committing three more fouls and La Indiana were finally able to take lead with two penalty goals from Pieres. Combined with a field goal from Santiago Laborde, one of the two La Indiana goals that wasn’t scored by Pieres, secured the narrow victory in a hard-fought game for La Indiana.