Thu 13th Jul 2017The Jaeger-LeCoultre Gold Cup Continues Teams fight for their spot in the Quarter Finals
This week has seen the last qualifying matches for the Jaeger-LeCoultre Gold Cup, ahead of the Quarter Finals on this weekend, 15 – 16 July. On Saturday 8 July, Cartier Queen’s Cup winners RH Polo scored a convincing win over Sommelier. In the lead from the off, Sommelier could only watch as the RH Polo line-up dominated the field. A few fouls in the second chukka from Sommelier gave RH Polo too many opportunities at goal, all of which they converted, leaving Sommelier trailing 6-2 going into the third chukka. Sommelier were unable to make up the difference, as Soleimani’s side’s attack was too strong and no goals for the Sommelier side in the third, fourth and fifth chukkas left them with too steep a mountain to climb and the match ended 10-6 in RH’s favour. Murus Sanctus gracefully bowed out of the competition after an exciting seven-chukka match saw Monterosso take their second win of the tournament. The lead swapped between teams throughout the game with Monterosso starting strong, allowing Murus Sanctus to score just twice in the first half of the match, only to be caught unawares in the fourth chukka, when Murus Sanctus came back fighting. Regular time ended with eight goals apiece, Santiago Toccalino scoring a Penalty 3 to tie the game up. An early foul in overtime gave Murus Sanctus the perfect opportunity to send themselves through to the Quarter Finals, but ultimately the pressure was too much. The ball went wide and the Toccalino brothers pounced, sending the ball flying into their end where Ignacio Toccalino scored for the win ending the match 9-8 to Monterosso. La Indiana secured their place in the Quarter Finals with a 10-6 win against La Bamba de Areco. A change to the team line-up saw Pite Merlos play for injured brother Agustín, providing a dynamic shift to the team tactics, which caught La Bamba de Areco by surprise. With Pite’s strong defensive presence, it was up to Luke Tomlinson and Nic Roldan to take offensive control, which they did admirably with four goals apiece, plus a further two from patron Michael Bickford. Despite missing shots at goal, La Indiana dominated throughout and La Bamba de Areco weren’t able to get a look in. Following a goal-less first half for Jean-François Deçaux’s team, they performed better in the second half of the match, but they were unable to make a dent in the La Indiana 10-6 lead. First time Jaeger-LeCoultre team Habtoor were unfortunately sent packing by the all-Brit El Remanso team despite a great comeback in the second half of the Argentine Ambassador’s Cup. Habtoor remained in the game throughout, pushing El Remanso to switch from their more natural attacking strategy to a primarily defensive one. Unfortunately, they couldn’t overcome the four-man Brit powerhouse with three goals apiece for Cudmore, Hanbury and Beim, and two for Harper. Nico Pieres scored a valiant three goals for Habtoor in the final chukka, but it wasn’t enough to catch up with El Remanso ending the match 11-9. Following the bumper weekend, Monday 10 July saw RH Polo secure their place at the top of League B and thus in the next round, narrowly beating Talandracas 12-11 in some challenging weather. It was a tightly fought match with the scoresheet bouncing back and forth. Cambiaso sustained an injury in the fourth chukka, temporarily being replaced by 7 goaler de Lusaretta until 10 goal Ulloa stepped in for the final chukka. Perfect goal scoring from RH Polo and numerous missed opportunities from Talandracas made the ultimate difference. Andrade finished the match with a perfectly placed neckshot, sailing the ball high over the goal and sealing the victory for RH Polo in extra time. Tuesday 11 July was the day of close matches as Sommelier beat Monterosso Polo team 10-9 in overtime with both teams moving forward to the Quarter Finals. Monterosso Polo Team began the match storming out of the line-out to a 4-1 lead with four goals from Toccalino. But as the third chukka began, Sommelier locked down their defence and scored five goals of their own. Sommelier continued the pressure into the sixth chukka with Mannix signing the deal with his final shot, just over three minutes into extra time sealing the win. El Remanso, on excellent form, took the win from King Power 9-8 with both teams also moving on to the next round. El Remanso utilised exceptional team defence to keep the pressure on King Power for the entirety of the game. The usual synergy we see with King Power just wasn’t evident and the all-Brit El Remanso were able to take advantage. After a 12-9 win for first time Jaeger-LeCoultre team Habtoor in the final game of the group stages, La Bamba de Areco said their goodbyes to the high goal tournament for 2017. They displayed an efficient attack throughout the match, but with four shots on goal missed in the first two chukkas, Habtoor were able to race up the scoreboard. La Bamba de Areco were unable to close the gap and Cavanagh’s seven goal performance wasn’t enough to keep Habtoor from victory. The Quarter Final matches will take place as follows: Sat 15 July – 12pm: La Indiana vs Sommelier Sat 15 July – 3pm: El Remanso vs Monterosso Polo Team Sun 16 July – 12pm: RH Polo vs Habtoor Sun 16 July – 3pm: King Power vs Talandracas The Semi Finals will take place on Wednesday 19 July, whilst the Final will be on Sunday 23 July at 3pm. A full write-up and updates will appear in Polo Times, so if you are not a subscriber you are missing out! Click here to subscribe. Results so far: Tue 27 June: Talandracas (8) vs Murus Sanctus (9) Wed 28 June: King Power (9) vs La Indiana (7) Wed 28 June: RH Polo (9) vs Monterosso Polo Team (10) Sat 1 July: Sommelier (10) vs Talandracas (11) Sun 2 July: RH Polo (15) vs Murus Sanctus (7) Sun 2 July: La Bamba de Areco (12) vs King Power (11) Mon 3 July: Habtoor Polo (8) vs La Indiana (12) Wed 5 July: Talandracas (13) vs Monterosso Polo Team (10) Thurs 6 July: Habtoor (13) vs King Power (14) Thurs 6 July: La Indiana (11) vs El Remanso (9) Sat 8 July: Sommelier (6) vs RH Polo (10) Sat 8 July: Murus Sanctus (8) vs Monterosso Polo Team (9) Sun 9 July: La Bamba de Areco (6) vs La Indiana (10) Sun 9 July: Habtoor (9) vs El Remanso (11) Mon 10 July: Talandracas (11) vs RH Polo (12) Tues 11 July: Sommelier (10) vs Monterosso Polo Team (9) Tues 11 July: King Power (8) vs El Remanso (9) Wed 12 July: La Bamba de Areco (9) vs Habtoor (12) The Jaeger-LeCoultre Gold Cup Teams: El Remanso (21): Charlie Hanbury (4), Ollie Cudmore (5), James Beim (6) & James Harper (6) Murus Sanctus (22): Corinne Ricard (0), Hilario Ulloa (10), Facundo Sola (8) & ‘Min’ Podesta (4) La Indiana (22): Michael Bickford (1), Nic Roldan (7), Agustín Merlos (8) – substituted by Pite Merlos (8) & Luke Tomlinson (6) RH Polo (22): Ben Soleimani (0), Tommy Beresford (4), Adolfo Cambiaso (10) – substituted by Julian de Lusaretta (7)/Hilaro Ulloa for Mon 10 July (10) & Rodrigo de Andrade (8) Monterosso Polo Team (22): Alessandro Bazzoni (1), Ignacio Toccalino (8), Santiago Toccalino (8) & Matt Perry (5) La Bamba De Areco (22): Jean-François Deçaux (0), Diego Cavanagh (8), Cristian Laprida (8) & Rodrigo Rueda Jnr (6) Talandracas Polo Team (22): Edouard Carmignac (0), Guillermo Caset (9), ‘Pelon’ Stirling (10) & Hugo Lewis (3) King Power (22): ‘Top’ Srivaddhanaprabha (1) – substituted by Hugo Taylor for Sunday 2 July (1), James Fewster (1), Gonzalo Pieres (10) & Facundo Pieres (10) Sommelier (22): George Hanbury (3), Juan Gris Zavaleta (7), Fred Mannix Jnr (8) & Alec White (4) Habtoor (22): Mohammed Al Habtoor (0), Francisco Elizalde (7), Nico Pieres (8) & Isidro Strada (7) Photograph: Pite Merlos substitutes for injured brother Agustin. By ©www.imagesofpolo.com
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