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Royal Barriere win in OT

Golden goal by Pancho Bensadon

A great match for the Coupe d'Or

By PoloLine & Alejandra Ocampos 
 
Sunday action for the Coupe d'Or at Deauville International Polo Club featured a great polo match between Royal Barriere and Richard Mille, that had absolutely everything: from a heavy storm to a breathtaking last chukker, and OT.

Facundo Sola and Pancho Bensadon opened the scores for Royal Barriere, while Guillermo Willington converted a penalty for Richard Mille. The first chukker ended with André Fabre's team leading by 2-1.
 
The second chukker was greeted by heavy rains. Despite the intense showers, the match was interrupted for only two or three minutes, and both teams kept playing normally, this due to the great shape of the grounds at Deauville International Polo Club, that managed to handle with such amount of water.
 
Back to the match, the second chukker featured much action and a large number of goals, despite the fact that it was played under heavy showers. That was when Royal Barriere took a considerable advantage, as they were 6-3 up by the end of the second seven minutes of play. A superb Facu Sola, in one of his best performances ever, scored three goals for Royal Barriere (Juan Ambroggio added one). A field goal by Pablo MacDonough and one penalty by Guillermo Willington made two for Richard Mille. It's good to say that penalty conversions made Temi Willington his day, as he was 100% effective on this issue.
 
Richard Mille made a great comeback in the third chukker. A great offensive work by Bahar Jeffri and his boys put Royal Barriere's defense down, leaving them scoreless. Mille dominated the match with goals by Guillermo Willington (2), Oliver Cudmore and Pablo MacDonough. They won the chukker 4-0 which meant that now Richard Mille was leading 7-6.
 
Despite goals by Juan Ambroggio and Pancho Bensadon for Royal Barriere, Richard Mille put more pressure in the fourth chukker. Bahar Jeffri scored a great goal, and Guillermo Willington added three, so Mille remained in the lead 11-8.

The fifth chukker had a name: Facundo Sola, the young and talented Argentine player, who already have a superstar status as one of the fastest growing players of his generation. Facu took control of the action for Royal Barriere's comeback, and scored no less than four of the five goals of his team (plus one more by Juan Ambroggio). Pablo MacDonough scored twice for Richard Mille, and the scoreboard read 13-all, with only seven minutes remaining.
 
Royal Barriere's Facundo Sola and Richard Mille's Guillermo Willington scored three goals apiece (many on penalty conversions), in a very intense sixth chukker. Despite the wet ground and a constant drizzling, both teams were coming and going and exchanged goals in a frantic search for victory. With only seconds of the over time chukker, the attendance hold their breath: Bahar Jeffri hit a neckshot that could have decided the final result, but the shot went just wide. Following the knock-in, Pancho Bensadon picked the ball from a combined play of Facundo Sola and run to the goalposts to seal the 17-16 win for Royal Barriere.
 
Score Royal Barriere: 2-1, 6-3, 6-7, 8-11, 13-13, 16-16, 17-16