La Dolfina, Ellerstina vying for historic Triple Crown
A crucial match comes head to head as the defending champions La Dolfina and Ellerstina Etiqueta Negra (Black Label Ellerstina) face each other for the Triple Crown fight in the finals of the 117th Argentina Open Polo
Championship (117th Campeonato Argentino Abierto De Polo Del Bicentenario Movistar) at Palermo, Argentina.
The finals between La Dolfina Peugeot and Ellerstina Etiqueta Negra will be a classic polo competition, as both the foursomes are best clubs in the world.
La Dolfina has won the Argentina Open Polo Championship for three times (2005, 2007 and 2009); while Ellerstina won only once, back in 2008. The defending champions La Dolfina under the esteemed Adolfo Cambiaso will attempt to
repeat history while Ellerstina will try to complete a hat-trick of tournaments by clinching the Triple Crown. Ellerstina Etiqueta Negra acquired the Hurlingham Opens and the Tortugas earlier this year.
It will be an interesting clash as players from both foursomes will quit soon after the tournament including Pablo Mac Donough and Juan Martin of Ellerstina, who will leave the team and will join La Dolfina. Bartolome Castagnola
and Lucas Moteverde are quitting La Dolfina and will be part of the Agustin Y Sebastian Merlos foursome for 2011. Both the foursomes will put all their efforts to make the farewell game more memorable and historic.
Critics are expecting bets worth millions of dollars over this historic match which could make anyone rich and on the other side indigent as well.
The World’s renowned and oldest interclub polo tournament, the Argentina Polo Open Championship which is also known as the ‘Campenato Argentino Abierto De Polo Del’ was first played in 1893 at Catedral Del Polo in Argentina.
This tournament is organised yearly by the Argentina Polo Association (AAP), which also goes by the ‘Asociacion Argentina De Polo’. Usually, the Argentina Open Polo Championship is being played among foursomes having 28 to 40 handicaps.
In the past, Coronel Suarez were the foursome who acquired the title of the Triple Crown 25 times, the historic record which is unbroken so far.
Eight clubs were participating in the 117th edition of Argentina Open Polo Championship: Sao Jose Audi (30), Pilara Piaget (33), Alegria (34), Indios Chapaleufu II (34), Chapa Uno (35), La Aguada (37) and the finalists
La Dolfina (39) and Ellerstina.
The two best foursomes having the best players and ponies will definitely display a memorable game in the finals clash. The duo squads had contested some twenty matches against each other of which La Dolfina acquired 12 while the
Ellerstina foursome clinched victory in only eight games.
The La Dolfina Peugeot foursome will be comprised of David Stirling 9, Bartolome Castagnola 10, Lucas Monteverde 10 and legendary Adolfo Cambiaso 10 while Juan Martin Nero 10, Gonzalo Pieres 10, Facundo Pieres 10, and Pablo Mac
Donough 10 will represent the Ellerstina team.
Adolfo Cambiaso and his mates reached the final of the Argentina Open Polo Championship ten times in the last fourteen years. Among the last six finals of the tournament, five were played between La Dolfina and Ellerstina and interestingly
all the matches were decided in extra-time.
Adolfo Cambiaso of La Dolfina and Facundo Pieres of Ellerstina are two legendary stars who could change the results of the game. The one who will have the luck on the day of the final will definitely clinch the Triple Crown.
Talking to the media, Pablo Mac Donough of Ellerstina said that the pressure is on both sides and that the final game would be more interesting than the previous finals were. He further said that they are hoping to win the Triple
Crown title for the second time.
Some commentators are declaring Ellerstina as the favourite; however the opponent squad is headed by the world’s highest goal scorer, Adolfo Cambiaso, who will not be an easy target.
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