It is done. La Dolfina beat Ellerstina 13-12 in the final of the Argentine Open at Palermo, and with it they won the Triple Crown for the third year in a row, something no team had ever managed before.
The line-ups
- La Dolfina (40 goals): Adolfo Cambiaso, David Stirling, Pablo Mac Donough and Juan Martín Nero.
- Ellerstina (39 goals): Pablo Pieres, Nicolás Pieres, Gonzalo Pieres and Facundo Pieres.
A season of finals against the same rivals
The final was played on Field 1 at Palermo, the famous Cathedral of Polo. For Ellerstina it was a third consecutive final loss to La Dolfina this season, after Tortugas, where they lost 11-9, and Hurlingham, where La Dolfina won 15-14. Palermo itself began for both teams on 20 November, and the final was the closest and most nervous of the three.
The records
- It was La Dolfina’s ninth Palermo title.
- It extended their unbeaten run to 33 matches.
- It made them the first team to win three Triple Crowns in a row.
- The match was the most important of the team’s history, according to the Argentine press, because of what it completed.
Why it matters
La Dolfina won the Triple Crown in 2013 and 2014 as well, so this extends their run to nine Triple Crown tournament wins in a row. That the Pieres family, with four players on 39 goals, could push them so hard in each of the three finals is a sign of how good Ellerstina have been, but also of how hard it is to find a way past a team that wins when it matters.
The Argentine season is now complete. For the polo calendar, the two sides that played this final have given us a fitting finish to the year, and La Dolfina, led as ever by Cambiaso, go into the new season as the team everyone else must beat.
Sources: Infobae
