Gold Cup Glory

By Ron Allen

 

 

It was the re-match the polo world was waiting all summer for and no one was disappointed. Facundo Pieres with Zacara against his arch rival Adolfo Cambiaso with Dubai in the finals of England’s Gold Cup.

Adolfo was first to score but Dubai had to struggle to keep up for the rest of the match. The game tied at 2-all to start the third. But the fourth chukker was all Zacara as they led 7 to 4. With four minutes left in the match Cambiaso suffered a knee injury and then, to make matters worse for Dubai, Facu stole the ball from Adolfo as they were running head-to-head and scored on a solo 170 run to goal.

Adolfo with a painful knee injury

The Gold Cup won by Zacara 11 to 8 with the scoring machine, Facundo Pieres, racking up 9 goals and winning MVP as well as Best Playing Pony honors. Dating back to the U.S. Open competition Zacara has now won 19 consecutive polo games and this was Lyndon Lea’s second English Gold Cup.

Zacara wins again

Pieres solidified his top position as the number one polo player in the world. He was leading Cambiaso by five points in the World Polo Tour ratings and now, with his Gold Cup win, Facundo pulls ahead by 85 points.

 

Facundo: 1,117                       Adolfo: 1032