El Remanso Impresses in Win Over Valiente
Play continued on the tenth day of the 2018 King Power Gold Cup with El Remanso in top form in an 11-7 victory over Valiente 11-7 while La Indiana defeated Thai Polo 15-11 at Cowdray Park Polo Club.
The opening match saw a strong team performance by El Remanso despite a slow start to the game that saw them trail 4-0. James Harper and James Beim worked well together to score goals and orchestrate a balanced offense that also saw contribution from Oliver Cudmore and Charlie Hanbury. Valiente’s Adolfo Cambiaso was marked quickly and aggressively by the El Remanso defence, resulting in a 4 for 10 shooting game for a Valiente team that struggled to convert their opportunities around goal. After the early deficit, El Remanso controlled the game, outscoring Valiente 10-3 after the first chukka to finish with the convincing four-goal victory.
Valiente stormed to an early lead, scoring on three of four attempts from the field, but converted just one of their three penalty attempts as they failed in increase their three-goal lead even further. Three consecutive goals for El Remanso, two of which coming from James Beim, brought them right back into contention with Valiente, trailing just one goal. By the end of the first half, El Remanso continued to find themselves in foul trouble, committing seven fouls to just one for Valiente, but the early missed penalty attempts for Valiente kept them from extending their lead. The 5-4 advantage for Valiente at half time, was due to their quick start as they failed to record a field goal in the final two chukkas of the half.
El Remanso continued their high-pressure defence on Cambiaso, preventing him from making his normal impact on the game, as Valiente struggled to find offense from the field. Charlie Hanbury’s third goal of the game in the fourth chukka gave El Remanso their first lead of the game. The momentum of El Remanso continued in the fifth chukka as Valiente failed to score from the field for the fourth consecutive chukka. The El Remanso passing attack left the Valiente defence in disarray, as they committed five fouls in the final two chukkas, leading to two penalty goals for El Remanso. A strong final chukka with goals from Beim, Cudmore and Harper sealed the 11-7 victory for El Remanso as they claimed their third win of the tournament and remain undefeated.
The second game of the day saw an offensively minded affair with La Indiana producing an efficient attack to outplay an improved Thai Polo performance. Joaquin Pittaluga and Nic Roldan were stand out players for each side, scoring 6 and 7 goals respectively with Roldan shooting an impressive 6 for 7 from the field. Thai Polo were able to stay within reach of La Indiana in the first half, but the combination of Facundo Pieres, Roldan and Alec White produced an exceptional second half, converting nine of their ten shot attempts to finish with the five-goal victory.
The opening chukkas saw Thai Polo look the stronger side, with Joaquin Pittaluga scoring three of his team’s first four goals, while La Indiana struggled to find the mark, converting just two of their seven attempts from the field. La Indiana were able to grab hold of the narrow 5-4 lead at halftime, due to four fouls from Thai Polo resulting in three penalty goals for the duo of Pieres and Roldan.
The second half began with an offensive explosion for La Indiana, led by Roldan scoring four unanswered goals to begin the half. The perfect 4 for 4 shooting from the field and penalty conversion increased La Indiana’s lead to five after Thai Polo had been able to match La Indiana stride for stride. With a comfortable lead, La Indiana was able to maintain their advantage, despite three goals from Thai Polo, as the high-scoring second half continued with La Indiana also adding three goals to the scoreboard. With the game comfortably in hand, Roldan scored his seventh goal of the game in the final chukka to seal the victory for La Indiana as they improved to 2-1 in the King Power Gold Cup.