The Argentine season has handed us a proper rivalry to follow. On Sunday 11 November, La Dolfina beat Ellerstina 18-11 in the final of the 119th Hurlingham Open, and in doing so snatched back some of the pride they lost in the opening leg of the Triple Crown.
A Triple Crown still in the balance
Argentina’s biggest polo prize is split across three tournaments: the Tortugas Open, the Hurlingham Open and the Argentine Open at Palermo. Ellerstina came into this final holding the Tortugas title, which they had taken from La Dolfina in the final of the first leg. A win at Hurlingham would have left them one tournament short of winning all three in the same season, the sort of clean sweep that gets talked about for decades.
La Dolfina were not in the mood to help. Adolfo Cambiaso’s side took the final by seven goals, a wide margin for a match between two of the strongest teams in the sport. The result ends any prospect of an Ellerstina sweep this year, and it gives La Dolfina the answer they wanted after losing at Tortugas.
Who scored the goals
- Juan MartÃn Nero scored seven goals for La Dolfina.
- Pablo Mac Donough also scored seven.
- Adolfo Cambiaso added four.
Nero and Mac Donough have become the kind of players who decide big finals, and their output here shows how much La Dolfina now rely on more than one star. It is easy to look only at Cambiaso, but the team that wins matches like this is usually the one in which the others produce as well.
What it means for the rest of the season
The Hurlingham Open sits in the middle of the three Triple Crown tournaments. With each of the two big rivals now holding one of the first two trophies, the Argentine Open at Palermo promises to be a tightly contested affair, and we will be following it closely.
For anyone new to Argentine polo, the Hurlingham Open is a good tournament to know. This was its 119th edition, which tells you how long the sport has been played at the top level in Argentina, and it brings together the same elite teams who chase the other two trophies. Watching the same names meet again and again over a few weeks is one of the real pleasures of the Argentine spring.
Sources: Perfil 442 (DyN)
