Saturday wins for La Dolfina Brava & Chapaleufú
After opening wins for La Dolfina and La Ensenada on Friday 12 November, the action continued in the 128th HSBC Argentine Open on Saturday 13 November in Palermo. The first match of the day between La Dolfina Brava and Alegria Fish Creek saw a new milestone in Argentine polo, with Adolfo ‘Poroto’ Cambiaso becoming the youngest player (15 years, 11 months and 16 days) to compete in The Argentine Open, a record which had been held by Gonzalito Pieres since 1999. The match also saw Argentine Open debuts for Tomás Panelo (who replaced an injured Rodrigo Ribeiro de Andrade) and Alegria’s Pedrinho Zacharias. Both teams fought hard during the entire match, with the final outcome anyone’s guess as the eighth chukka began with the scores tied at 12-12; with just 30 seconds left, Panelo slotted home the winning goal, securing La Dolfina Brava a close 14-13 win. The second match of the day was equally thrilling and had all the hallmarks of a match to remember with 33 goals, two tournament debuts and four players aged 20-years-old or less. Chapaleufú took their place in the tournament following their win in The Classification Tournament and pushed the match into overtime, which saw Rufino Bensadón, who managed to score 15 of Chapaleufú’s goals, secure the golden goal and the overall win for Chapaleufú vs La Natavidad, 17-16. The win puts Chapaleufú in a very strong position for the classification ranking for the tournament and means La Natavidad will have to pull out all the stops if they want to reach the Final. The action continues tomorrow with Ellerstina vs La Irenita and La Ensenada vs Alegria Fish Creek.
128th Argentine Open Teams:
League A
Ellerstina (38): Facundo Pieres (10), Hilario Ulloa (9), Gonzalo Pieres Jr. (9) & Nicolás Pieres (10)
La Dolfina Saudi (38): Adolfo Cambiaso (10,) Francisco Elizalde (9), David Stirling (10) & Diego Cavanagh (9)
La Ensenada (33): Juan Britos (9), Alfredo Bigatti (8), Juan Martín Zubía (8) & Jerónimo del Carril (8)
La Irenita (31): Santiago Loza (8), Isidro Strada (8), Ignacio Toccalino (8) & Segundo Bocchino (7)
Alegría Fish Creek (30): Tito Ruiz Guiñazú (8), Clemente Zavaleta (7), Joaquín Pittaluga (7) & Bautista Bayugar (8)
League B
RS Murus Sanctus (39): Guillermo Caset (10), Facundo Sola (9), Pablo MacDonough (10) & Juan Martín Nero (10)
La Natividad (36): Pablo Pieres (9), Camilo Castagnola (9), Bartolomé Castagnola Jr. (9) & Nachi du Plessis (9)
La Dolfina Brava (33): Tomás Panelo (6), Poroto Cambiaso (8), Alejo Taranco (8) & Guillermo Terrera (9)
Alegria (28): Tomás García del Río (7), Fred Mannix (7), Agustín Merlos (7) & Pedro Zacharias (7)
Chapaleufú (29): Rufino Bensadon (7), Juan Gris Zavaleta (8), Julián de Lusarreta (7) & Felipe Dabas (7)
Photograph: La Nativadad vs Chapaleufú was a closely fought match. By Matias Callejo