All year long Facundo Pieres has garnered top billing, and well he should have. His team won last year’s Argentine Open and in 2013 he won the US Open, the Queens Cup, the British Open, Spain’s Silver and Gold Cups and he eclipsed Adolfo Cambiaso as the top ranked player (per the World Polo Tour), but the year isn't over yet.
Rebounding from a sub-par performance (team-wise), Adolfo Cambiaso has bounced back to establish himself and his La Dolfina team as the dominant force on the Argentine polo scene. Beginning with the La Dolfina win in the Tortugas Open, a tournament that Ellerstina had won the last six years, the Cambiaso-led foursome went on to destroy opponents in early Hurlingham Open play and ultimately control much of the final game as they recorded an 18-16 win. Looking at a possible Triple Crown season, Cambiaso and his La Dolfina teammates look to be making a statement to Ellerstina and to Facundo Pieres. Adolfo Cambiaso isn't ready to retire any time soon, and no, he doesn’t take kindly to be ranked as the Number 2 polo player in the game today.
Ellerstina ran out to an early 3-1 lead in the first chukker of the Hurlingham Open finals, but that was the last chukker in the course of the game that La Dolfina trailed. Critics may cite the many fouls and lack of a running game but La Dolfina fans need only point to the scoreboard at the end of the match. La Dolfina has won the first two legs of Argentina’s Triple Crown of polo, and seem poised to finish it off with the Argentine Open. The only thing standing in their way might be the teamwork of the Pieres brothers. It was evident that Pablo MacDonough’s sole purpose in the Hurlingham Open finals was to take Gonzalito Pieres out of the play. He was so efficient that many weren’t certain that Gonzalito Pieres showed up at all. The veteran leadership of Mariano Aguerre was decidedly missing while the return of Nico Pieres wasn’t enough, in itself, to make a four man team operate effectively.
As for Facundo Pieres, he scored ten of his eleven goals on penalty shots and didn't seem to have the support needed to play his A game.
Should he remain the game’s top-ranked player if La Dolfina sweeps the high-goal season in Argentina? That remains to be seen.
Source: International Polo Club Palm Beach https://www.facebook.com/IPCPB
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