Europe Bring It Back To 1-1 at Mosconi Cup

Europe Bring It Back To 1-1 at Mosconi CupThe European billiard team pulled the score back to 1-1 with success in the second match of the 2006 PartyPoker.com Mosconi Cup.The European triples side of Ralf Souquet, David Alcaide and Mika Immonen clinched an impressive 6-3 victory against the American trio of Johnny Archer, John Schmidt and Mike Davis.Discuss the PartyPoker.com Mosconi Cup
This was the first ever contest of this type in the competition's history and both sides claimed one of the opening two racks as America looked to gain their second victory of the evening. It looked like becoming 2-1 to Europe when USA captain Johnny Archer missed the 3-ball but that mistake was not punished as Immonen scratched to gift America the 2-1 lead.But Immonen soon redeemed himself when he made a 4-9 combination to bring it back to 2-2 before USA again moved into the lead at 2-3.An underhit shot from Alcaide forced Souquet to play safe but left Davis with a great deal to do. The American was hooked but an attempted bank shot did not come off as the 7-ball was left hanging over the corner pocket and Souquet later sunk the 9-ball for 3-3.Immonen missed an attempt at the blue 2 in the seventh rack but left a tricky, short-range shot into the left centre pocket, which Davis failed to convert. Europe ran through the rest of the balls before Immonen, who was having a mixed match, converted another rack.For the second successive match, Europe became the first side to reach the hill as Alcaide downed the 9-ball in the eighth rack to give his team a 5-3 advantage and had a chance to seal the win when Davis scratched off the break in the next.There was drama for the packed out crowd at the Cruise Terminal in the ninth rack. Souquet left Immonen a tough shot on the 9-ball to win the match but the Finnish player rattled the ball into the jaws of the pocket, but fortunately left it safe.Archer stepped up the table and tried an optimistic table-length bank shot but it did not work and he was not as fortunate as Immonen as the ball stopped close to the right middle pocket and a delighted Alcaide sealed the 6-3 victory.

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