AMG MIAMI BEACH POLO WORLD CUP RECAP: Friday, April 23, 2010
By Alex Webbe
Opening day for the 2010 AMG Miami Beach Polo World Cup, played at the beach arena located between 20th and 22nd behind the Setai Hotel, got off to an exciting start with Nacho Figueras scoring 7 of his team’s 10 goals to lead the AMG team into a 10-9 win over Morgan Stanley. After a defensive oriented first chukker had AMG ahead 1 to nothing, Figueras broke loose scoring 6 goals in the 2nd chukker to lead AMG to a 7 to 2 half time lead. Nine goaler Nic Roldan accounted for 2 points for Morgan Stanley on a 65 yard shot through the goal posts.
Photo copyright Ami De La Mer.
Morgan Stanley mounted a comeback in the 3rd chukker tying the AMG team at 7-7. Pelon Escapite scored his second goal of the game to keep AMG ahead, 8 to 7.
The game was even for the final 7.5 minutes of play with Roldan scoring twice for Morgan Stanley before goals from Figueras and Escapite salted away the win for AMG.
Second match of the day, a power Hublot team lead by 9-goaler Matias Magrini scored a decisive 16-6 win over the Setai with Magrini accounting for 9 of the Hublot goals.
Balance scoring by Hublot at goals from Mark Goode and Chet Lott as well as Guillermo Usandizaga. Shane Rice elated over a thousand spectators by scoring power 2 point shots twice from nearly 100 yards away.
The final match of the day of the defending 2009 championship Bombay Sapphire team extending an early 3-0 lead to score a well earned 9-3 win over a struggling Ferretti team. A hand full of early missed opportunities by the Ferretti team had them trailing 5-1 at half time before Bombay Sapphire cranked it up in the second half for the final 9-3 win. Luis Escobar lead all scoring with 5 goals, John Gobin scored 4 times in the win. Carlucho Arellano accounted for all 3 Ferretti goals.
Action continues on Saturday with the 1pm contest between AMG (1-0) and the Setai (0-1); Bombay Sapphire (1-0) will meet Morgan Stanley (0-1) at 2:30; followed by Hublot-Ferretti match at 4pm.