The moral left behind by the documentary We beat the Dream Team No matter how brilliant individuality may be, invincibility in sports is a mirage. If a group of college kids can defeat the greatest pool of basketball talent ever, no one will be safe. Not even the original dream team of Jordan, Magic and BirdNor the equivalent of the Bolero, which monopolized the past decade Cambiasso, Sterling, McDonough and NeroNot even his contemporary heir. The evidence suggests so cradle-la-dolphina, The monster bred by father and son Cambiasso and the Castagnola brothers is smoothly heading towards winning the Palermo Open. However, experience is that, as the saying goes, games are never won before they are played.
In preparation for Barcelona ’92, the Dream Team played a series of practice games in La Jolla, California, against a team made up of college basketball players, including Chris Webber, Grant Hill, Anfernee Hardaway, Allan Houston and the recently deceased Rodney Rogers. They would all be NBA stars, but that was still a few years away. At that time they were just promises. With cinematic evidence, the documentary reveals that in the first confrontation the sparring team thrived and won 62-54.
Definition of area (a) of Argentine Open Championship between Cradle La Dolphina and UAE Polothis Wednesday at 4:30 p.m. After rain has prevented it from being held since last Saturday (before Los Machitos and La Zeta-Cazac meet at 2pm), some differences appear regarding this meeting. First of all, this is not the first move for the favorite, but he has had a great run in the current Triple Crown and his performance has been at its peak. Moreover, their opponent is not a bunch of promises, but rather has two established players who know what it means to reach the top and two other experienced youngsters. But in essence it is the same: No match was settled before the teams took to the field.
The Emirates Polo Team has two members who know the insides of the opposition well. One is Juan Martin Neroa member of the original Dream Team alongside Cambiasso and also a partner of his son Boruto when he returned to La Dolfina to contribute to the win at Palermo 2022. The other is the technical director Milo Fernandez Araujowho formed the winning aura of the team that won eight consecutive matches in La Catedral (between 2013 and 2020) and also returned in difficult moments.
“It’s a tough match, but I have a lot of confidence in myself,” warns Nero. “I have full confidence in my teammates. We have to be sharp in our tackles, which is the area we were weak in. You have to stay close, because if you lose focus for even a little while they will cause chaos. They are a team where you have to be very good at marking and defending to have a chance. We know what they are if you give them space: they are extremely skilled, and very well put together. They play very well when they are organised. But we will live up to it.”
Both won their three matches and Wednesday’s winner will advance to the final. La Natividad-La Dolfina beat La Zeta-Cazac 22-11, Los Machitos 18-6 and Sol de Agosto 20-6. The Emirates Polo Team defeated the same opponents 13-12, 15-12 and 16-10 respectively.
Fernandez Araujo, who specializes in the art of motivation as well as tactical matters, had extra work this short week. Monday’s win over Los Machitos did not leave them satisfied (they won 7-1 and were 11-11 at the end of the seventh game), and they know that a performance like this will not give them chances against the Galacticos. “You have to work a lot on the mental side. You have to be very focused. Every mistake will be a goal, so we have to minimize mistakes. “We know there will be mistakes, but it is important to recover quickly,” he said, but he refused to reveal strategies to contain them: “They don’t have a specific system. They play very naturally, they do what they feel at the moment, and that’s why it’s difficult to monitor them.” “We will try to impose our position.”
After reaching Hurlingham’s definition and having a good match against La Natividad La Dolfina (12-9 defeat), the Emirates Polo Team reduced its performance in the Tortugas and after narrowly defeating La Zeta in the first date of this open tournament, Nero called Fernández Araujo to order them some time.
What experience did that first encounter leave for you this year? Nero replies: “They play better as a team. They won without playing well, and now they have gained performance, which they didn’t have.” “Neither in Tortugas nor in Palermo were we able to play the eight chukka as we intended to play.”
Fernandez Araujo also compares this precedent: “You can’t take the Hurlingham final too much into account. Cambiasso was coming back from injury, had not yet passed the horses to the rest, Jetta was not riding well, and we lost a couple of horses.
Nero, for example, lost two of his best mares to injury: Clone 2 of Girl Girl and Limonada (a daughter of the famous Ole Chicha). “We have crazy Everyone felt it in the game. We’re in a pretty bad period, these are the things that happen. “We have to settle down,” he resigned back. “Now some mares have come on loan to us, and with a short list we will be well in the game.”
The duel has a special flavor to confront her former colleagues. Nero and Fernandez Araujo to their friends from La Dolfina and Polito Perez to Castagnola, with whom he won the 2021 Open. In addition, Tomas Panelo played for La Dolfina 2 and Lucas Monteverde (c.) is a close friend of Boruto, Barto and Guetta, and everything indicates that he will be a future partner when Cambiasso retires.
But Nero downplayed this nostalgic aspect of the story: “I’m used to facing Cambiasso. We’ve played against each other a few times abroad, I played him the year I was at Moros Sanctus, and this year at Hurlingham… We know each other, and this doesn’t generate anything for me. It’s nice to play with him. Having the possibility to play in the Palermo semi-final is fun. Since the day the draw was made we have been thinking about how we can reach this match with the horses and perform as well as possible. We won all three matches, we had chances, it depends on us. It is a great honor to have this opportunity. I want to enjoy it. “I don’t have any more of these toys left.”
Years later, Hill, Hardaway and Houston represented the United States and also won Olympic gold, but they remained in history for being part of the only team to defeat the Dream Team. Miracles in sports exist. UAE will choose one of them.