Zacara 10-goaler Facundo Pieres scored ten times in the 14-9 win. (Photo by Pablo Ramirez)
In a bit of a surprise, the defending British Open Championship Zacara polo team (Facundo Pieres, Lyndon Lea, Gonzalo Deltour and Matt Perry) struggled early on against a cobbled together Thai Polo entry (Harald Link, Nic Roldan, Juan Ambroggio and Tomas Garcia del Rio) that was making its 2014 debut in the country’s most prestigious tournament. Trailing 3-2 after the second period, Zacara managed to tie it up at 5-5 at halftime before riding on to a 14-9 win.
A pair of early goals by Thai Polo had Zacara trailing after the first chukker, 2-1.
Stingy defenses kept the scoring in the second chukker to a minimum, with Pieres scoring for Zacara to tie it at 2-2 and Tomas Garcia del Rio giving the lead back to Thai Polo to end the chukker, 3-2.
A pair of penalty goals from Pieres in the third and a goal from the field from Matt Perry were countered by goals from Roldan and del Rio. The first half ended in a 5-5 tie with a surprisingly strong showing from the Thai Polo team.
Zacara got its offense on track in the fourth chukker, scoffing the opening goal for a 6-5 lead. Del Tour stretched the Zacara lead to two goals, 7-5. Thai Polo answered back with a goal but consecutive goals gave Zacara a solid 9-6 advantage at the end of the period.
Pieres scored the fist three goals of the fifth chukker, converting two penalty shots and adding a goal from the field, 12-6. Roldan got Thai Polo on the scoreboard to end the chukker, but Thai Polo was behind, 12-7.
Two Zacara goals opened the sixth period, giving the defending champions a 14-7, seven goal lead as Thai Polo found themselves out-horsed. A penalty conversion from Harald Link and a final goal from Roldan ended the drama as Zacara celebrated their opening game of the 2014 Veuve Clicquot Gold Cup for the British Open with a 14-9 victory.
Once again it was Facundo Pieres who lit up the scoreboard for Zacara with 10 goals as the defending champions demonstrated that they were the team to beat once again this year.
UAE 10, EFG BANK ARAVALI 9
Earlier British Open action saw a scrambled UAE lineup (Zac Hagedoorn, Jack Richardson, Pablo MacDonough and Ollie Cudmore) replace the injured Lucas Monteverde and the absent team captain, Maitha Al Maktoum in a 10-9 win over a determined EFG Bank Aravali entry (
and Celine Charloux-with team captain Karan Thapar still sidelined by injury).
UAE took the early lead, scoring three times in the opening chukker. EFG Bank Aravali managed a single goal and trailed 3-1.
The two teams exchanged goals in the second period, each picking up a pair. After two chukkers UAE continued to lead, 5-3.
UAE put up two unanswered goals in the third while holding EFG Bank Aravali scoreless. At the end of the first half UAE was on top by four goals, 7-3.
A rejuvenated EFG Bank Aravali team took the field in the fourth chukker and exploded. Scoring four goals and limiting the UAE offense to a single score, EFG Bank Aravali tied it at 8-8, with two chukkers left to play.
UAE regained control of the game in the fifth as they added two goals to their total. EFG Bank Aravali appeared to be out of bullets as they were unable to score and fell behind, 10-8.
The final chukker of play was defensive in nature, with EFG Bank Aravali scoring the only goal of the period. The UAE defense held, however, securing a narrow 10-9 victory.
British Open play continues on Wednesday, June 25th with Lucchese (John Muse, Lucas James, Nico Pieres and Luke Tomlinson) playing HB Polo (Ludovic Pailloncy, Ignacio Toccalino, Pite Merlos and Sebastien Pailloncy) at 1pm followed by a 3pm game between Talandracas (Edouard Carmignac, Juan Martin Nero, Polito Pieres and Santiago Stirling) and El Remanso (Hugo Lewis, Charlie Hanbury, Pelon Stirling and Guillermo Terrera).