He Argentine Open Championship polo will have a luxury final this Saturday. The one that everyone expected when the high handicap chips were moved and the teams confirmed their formations for 2023. The final that neither Hurlingham nor Tortugas had, the first two events of the Triple Crownbut it will happen in Palermo, where La Dolfinathe eternal giant, and The Nativitythe new power, will be disputed the most desired trophy.
The two Cañuelas quartets will collide from 4:30 p.m. in a duel that will put much more at stake than the title of the most important competition in the world. Because it will decide which is the best team of the season, in which the first two tournaments were divided. And because it will break the historical “tie” between the two in Open definitions.
La Dolfina and La Natividad will collide for the third consecutive year in the finale of Palermo.
The Castagnola team won the 2021 match by 15 to 13 and claimed champions for the first time in their first final in the competition. In just his third season in the Triple Crown and with a lineup made up of Bartholomew and Camilo Castagnola -children of Lolo and nephews of Adolfo Cambiaso-, Pablo Pieres and Ignatius Du Plessisthe green-shirted team made a splash and made it clear that they had arrived to discuss “the natural order” that La Dolfina and La Dolfina had established many years before. Ellerstina.
That year, Cambiaso’s team was no longer the 40-goal invincible. At the end of 2020, Murus Sanctus had “stolen” Juan Martin Nero already Pablo Mac Donough and the best player in the world (Cambiaso, of course) and David Stirling had been associated with Francisco Elizalde and Diego Cavanagh to put together a formation of 38 goals that the click. La Natividad also won in Hurlingham, Ellerstina stayed with Tortugas and La Dolfina had to settle for being a finalist in the first and last events of the season.
Determined to restore his reign, Adolfito He made a big bet for 2022. He got Nero back and gave his son a place on the team Beana crack different, at that time 16 years old and already with a 9 handicap. That 39-goal version of La Dolfina shouted champion in Hurlingham and surpassed La Natividad in the Palermo final, which had retained the 2021 formation (although it had risen to 39 goals) and had taken the title in Tortugas.
After the resounding 13-9 victory of Cambiaso and company at the closing of the Argentine Open, where they won the 15th trophy in their 22nd final, the best player in the world announced that his team would keep the four members for 2023. And La Natividad will He realized that he was going to have to change to be able to fight this year.
The Castagnolas said goodbye to Polito Pieres and Du Plessis and added two renowned polo players: Facundo Pieres and Mac Donough, who had played together at Ellerstina between 2003 and 2010.
He back of the “Z” felt that he had completed a cycle in his family’s team, which he shared last year with his brothers Nicholas and Gonzalo and with Hilario Ulloa, to only reach one final: Turtles. At 36 years old, he felt ready for a new challenge and wanted to give himself the chance to win Palermo again, a tournament he had won “only” three times, the last in 2012. He met with the Castagnolas, analyzed his possibilities and in the end decided to change shirt.
Mac Donough had competed in the 2022 Triple Crown with The Little Irene, a team of their own that performed well and lost the Hurlingham title to La Dolfina. That good season had charged him with energy and renewed his desire to fight for the most important trophies again. And he chose to join the Nativity project, to which he came with a lot of experience (He won the Open 11 times and the Triple Crown four times) and a great horse, a key aspect for the high handicap, in which the green team needed to improve.
La Dolfina, 40 goals (Bean reached 10), and La Natividad, 39 (Facundo dropped to 9), started the 2023 season as the big favorites.La Dolfina won Hurlingham. Photo Matías Callejo / AAP Press
Cambiaso’s team started better. With the formation well oiled, they won by 18 to 13 The H and conquered Hurlingham, which this year opened the Triple Crown action.
The Nativity struggled until it arranged its new pieces: it started with Mug and Mac Donough ahead and Bart with Facundo back, but it didn’t work as expected. For Tortugas, he was planted differently (Pieres at 1, Jeta at 2, Mac Donough at 3 and Bartolomé at back), defeated La Dolfina in the semis, which went into a slump and lost that game that is its registered signature, and raised the trophy by also defeating La Hache.
In Palermo, La Dolfina went from smallest to largest. After the victory in the debut by 19 to 10 against La Hache IIin which Adolfito equaled the 31 historical participations of Eduardo and Alberto Heguy In the tournament, Cambiaso said that he did not like how the team played. And after beating La Hache 16 to 12 in the semis, he commented: “In Palermo we have a good record and in the last chukker (which they won 4-1) we showed it. The penalties that had to go in went in, and it was closed with that. We weren’t very impressive, but we played.”The Nativity was crowned in Tortugas. Photo Matías Callejo / AAP Press
La Natividad, with the clean and jerk of Tortugas, was more solid and very effective in the attack. “There are things to correct and we must focus on ourselves, on our game, more than on the opponent. We will also need the horses to arrive well. We have to play a great game, but we believe a lot in this team,” analyzed Mac Donough after the victory by 17 to 14, which gave the green team a pass to the final.
The two reached the decisive duel undefeated and in good moments, as if to give it more seasoning and definition. Now all that remains is to enjoy the clash between two great teams.
The eternal giant who, with three titans and a young man as (or more) talented than his father, wants to extend his reign. And the new power that, with the help of two stars with enormous futures and two different and experienced players, will seek to shake up the world polo order again and return to the top.
La Dolfina, 40 goals (Bean reached 10), and La Natividad, 39 (Facundo dropped to 9), started the 2023 season as the big favorites.La Dolfina won Hurlingham. Photo Matías Callejo / AAP Press
Cambiaso’s team started better. With the formation well oiled, they won by 18 to 13 The H and conquered Hurlingham, which this year opened the Triple Crown action.
The Nativity struggled until it arranged its new pieces: it started with Mug and Mac Donough ahead and Bart with Facundo back, but it didn’t work as expected. For Tortugas, he was planted differently (Pieres at 1, Jeta at 2, Mac Donough at 3 and Bartolomé at back), defeated La Dolfina in the semis, which went into a slump and lost that game that is its registered signature, and raised the trophy by also defeating La Hache.
In Palermo, La Dolfina went from smallest to largest. After the victory in the debut by 19 to 10 against La Hache IIin which Adolfito equaled the 31 historical participations of Eduardo and Alberto Heguy In the tournament, Cambiaso said that he did not like how the team played. And after beating La Hache 16 to 12 in the semis, he commented: “In Palermo we have a good record and in the last chukker (which they won 4-1) we showed it. The penalties that had to go in went in, and it was closed with that. We weren’t very impressive, but we played.”The Nativity was crowned in Tortugas. Photo Matías Callejo / AAP Press
La Natividad, with the clean and jerk of Tortugas, was more solid and very effective in the attack. “There are things to correct and we must focus on ourselves, on our game, more than on the opponent. We will also need the horses to arrive well. We have to play a great game, but we believe a lot in this team,” analyzed Mac Donough after the victory by 17 to 14, which gave the green team a pass to the final.
The two reached the decisive duel undefeated and in good moments, as if to give it more seasoning and definition. Now all that remains is to enjoy the clash between two great teams.
The eternal giant who, with three titans and a young man as (or more) talented than his father, wants to extend his reign. And the new power that, with the help of two stars with enormous futures and two different and experienced players, will seek to shake up the world polo order again and return to the top.
La Dolfina and La Natividad, protagonists of that dream final that everyone wanted to see.