It has been a long time coming to one of the best patrons in the sport of Polo. Steve Van Andel and manager pro Chris Strateman having been working on this for 20 years. I think this team has played in this Open for at least 16 years and made it to the finals now 6 or 7 times.
After a crushing loss last year in OT to Valiente and Adolfo Cambiaso, it was Steve’s turn and he did it. Orchard Hill defeated Dubai in OT and I did not see anything after midway in the 4th.
It was just sort of a jumble as good old Summerland Internet went surfing @ ½ time and did not come back today. The first 3 chukkars were different, but very exciting as OH won the throw in and struck 1st. Dubai won the second TI, scored and then held OH scoreless. It seemed OH was touching the ball way too much and Dubai was hitting and scoring to lead 3 to 1. It was an amazing chukker anyway. No knock ins and the last shot went out, but was passed to 2nd four fouls and only one was short and turned into a goal by Dubai.
Chukkar 2 it was a much better chukkar for OH. They found their men and hit the ball and made Dubai work. Again, the chukker was very fast with 4 fouls and one short at goal that was converted.
OH had closed the gap to 1 as Adolfo Cambiaso got 1, but lost the chukker 2 to 1. The third was speed polo and fun to watch. Early in chukker 3 OH took the tie and then the lead as they scored 4 in this chukker. Cambiaso made a safety to close it out trailing 7 to 5.
The amazing thing to me was that in 3 chukkars there were 3 missed goal shots that resulted in knock ins. That is pretty amazing. There were 10 fouls and 2 safeties, 5 of the 12 goals were from the penalty line and 2 of them were safeties. Pretty amazing polo.
You will have to tune into Polozone for the Alex Webbe play by play as I wasn’t able to watch the second half of the game. I would like to say thanks to all the players. What I saw was clean fast and very good. I think Cambiaso is still the best, but I have to say I was for Steve and Orchard Hill as I think he deserves it. I also am sure both Steve and Rashid were playing amazing and never seemed lost at all.
Well done Patrons ORCHARD HILL STEVE VAN ANDEL, JULIAN DE LUSERATA , JUAN MARTINE NERO, FACUNDO PIERES and CHRIS STRATEMAN. I think Juan Martin might have been the catalyst that made it work as he is so tough and stable behind FP could run. I have to see the finish some day. Chukkar TV thanks and great idea to add Dale Smicklas. He has been there done that and stopped a little of the vocal massage.
Congratulations again to both teams. What a show. I hear the new owner is going to continue POLO and thanks JOHN GOODMAN for making this POLO World possible.
See ya in CALIFORNIA where we always play polo .
See ya