La Natividad defended their title aganst La Dolfina Saudi once again in the final of the Argentine Open on Sunday 8th December, winning 13-11 after 8 high speed chukkas at Palermo in Buenos Aires. This is the 4th consecutive final for La Natividad against La Dolfina and their 3rd win overall having defeated them in 2021 and 2023, an impressive feat when you consider La Dolfina were playing their 24th final of 25 Argentine Opens.
Their second title of the season (having defeated La Dolfina to win the Hurlingham Open) La Natividad have had an incredible season with just a single loss (against Ellerstina in the Tortugas Open) which saw them lose out on a chance at the Triple Crown.
The highlight of the season, this 80 goal match was tough and fast, the two teams having honed their dynamics and optimised their strategy over the past 3 months. La Dolfina came out strong with an incredible second chukka putting them 5-2 up. They pressed this advantage throughout the first half keeping the green and white side matched man for man and shutting down attacking plays effectively. By halftime they were still 6-4 up, but the power shift came after halftime when a change in strategy resulted in a comeback for the La Natividad side. They came out of the halftime break focussed and smart, and with 2 goals from Jeta Castagnola and 2 goals from Facundo Pieres, unanswered by La Dolfina, they took the lead.
La Natividad began to apply heavy defensive pressure and the cracks started to appear in the La Dolfina attack as 29 shots at goal resulted in just 7 field goals. Mistakes were made as the blue shirts were swarmed by green with all 4 of the La Natividad players visibly quicker to make the most of missed balls and forfeited lines to intercept and run to goal. Fouls from La Dolfina in their defending half resulted in penalty opportunities for La Natividad of which 6 out of 8 were goals. La Natividad began to run away on the scoreboard and despite 4 consecutive goals from La Dolfina in the last chukka, it was not enough to catch the leaders whose team combination plays were more efficient, passes and shooting more accurate and field positioning more complete.
The Teams:
Chukka Breakdown:
Score Progression:
Game Statistics:
