La Dolfina loses Pelon Stirling for Hurlingham Open finals
By Alex Webbe
The second leg of the Argentine Triple Crown of Polo is scheduled to take place on Thursday afternoon at 3PM at the Hurlingham Club in Buenos Aires, but there will be a different La Dolfina (Adolfo Cambiaso, Sebastian Merlos, Pablo MacDonough and Juan Martin Nero) team taking the field against arch rival Ellerstina.
Pelon Stirling received a red card in La Ensenada’s (Ernesto Gutierrez, Pelon Stirling, Diego Cavanagh and Santiago Laborde) match with Restoration Hardware (Ben Soleimani, Francisco de Narvaez, Santiago Von Wernick and Hilario Ulloa) on Wednesday after a collision with Francisco de Narvaez and was ruled ineligible to play in the Hurlingham Open finals. Sebastian Merlos has been named as Stirling’s replacement.
Ellerstina, (Facundo Pieres, Gonzalito Pieres, Mariano Aguerre and Nico Pieres), however, will be taking the field with their original lineup intact, with Nico Pieres returning to the field following a slight muscle tear just over two weeks ago.
La Dolfina is looking to retain its chances for a sweep of Argentina’s top three tournaments after capturing the Tortugas Open in October with a 16-14 win over Ellerstina. Ellerstina will be trying to slow down the powerful La Dolfina offense and get in the winning column themselves, hoping that the return of Nico Pieres and the absence of Stirling will fuel their efforts.