Lechuza Caracas clinches the United States Open Polo Championship 8-6 at IPC
In an unexpected upshot, Lechuza Caracas has been emerged victorious over the talented Audi in the finals of the 107th United State Open Polo Championship contested at the International Polo Club in Wellington.
Sapo Caset, the fabled polo pro of Argentina stole the show with an impressive five goals.
The two teams displayed a disciplined game at the start of the competition. Victor Vargas, the skipper of the Lechuza team scored the first goal of the day to put his team ahead on the scoreboard. In the later time, Sapo Caset and Juan Martin Nero scored
one goal each in the period. Gonzalito Pieres connected on a long penalty shot to bring Audi into the score net, as it was only offence from them and they trailed by two goals, 3-1.
The speed of the game slowed down in the second chukka and only one goal was scored in the period. The Audi players were showing a confused and under pressure game on the field. They missed four sure points in the second round. At last, Gonzalito Pieres
notched a goal through a penalty conversion and trailed by a single goal, 3-2. The defensemen of Audi kept Lechuza off the scoreboard in the period.
Amazingly the third set of play belonged to Lechuza which obtained two goals while holding Audi scoreless in the period. Caset nailed a couple of goals of which one was scored through a penalty conversion while the other was from the field. With three chukkas
passed, Audi continued to lag behind 5-2.
The combination of Nero and Caset ruled out all the strikes from Audi. In the last moments of the fourth, Nero scored another goal to expand Lechuza’s lead up to four goals, 6-2.
Caset at the start of the fifth set of play converted another penalty shot, as Nero added a brilliant score from the field. Audi, the winners of the USPA Piaget Gold Cup were not looking impressive in the game. They remained scoreless in the third consecutive
round of the game and trailed by six goals, 8-2.
In the last chukka, the Audi attack came alive and attempted to make a come-back into the game, but failed to do so. Nico Pieres scored his first goal of the day while Andrade added another two goals to reduce the lead down to three points. In the later
time, Pieres converted another penalty shot but it was the last offence from the two sides.
The resilient defensemen of Audi kept Lechuza off the scoreboard in the period but failed to reduce the wide lead. With the final horn, Lechuza Caracas clinched the title of the US Open Polo Championship for the first time in the history.
Juan Martin Nero was selected for the Most Valuable Player award while Zoltan, the pony of Rodrigo Andrade was named as Best Playing Pony of the event. Best String in the Open award was presented to the horses of Sapo Caset. Lechuza earned their second title
in the season, as they had captured the C. V. Whitney Cup earlier in the season.
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