Team USA Victorious at the Mosconi Cup

Team USA Victorious at the Mosconi Cup By InsidePOOL Magazine StaffAfter a grueling final day of the Mosconi Cup event, Team USA turned things around from losing five games in a row the previous day to winning five out of the total six matches. In its tenth year, the Mosconi Cup is promoted by Matchroom Sport and was hosted by the MGM Grand Hotel and Casino in Las Vegas, NV.With the final day only consisting of singles matches, team captain Nick Varner chose to get things going by putting up Rodney Morris up first against reigning world champion Thorsten Hohmann. The two players traded games, with Morris executing an excellent break-and-run to tie at 2 apiece, saying, “Now we got a match, baby.”
Each player won another game each, and Morris had a tense moment when he almost scratched on the 8 ball in the following rack but pulled off a tough shot on the 9 to take the hill. He came up dry on his last break, and Hohmann looked all right for a while, but he soon got into trouble on the 6 ball and missed a long-rail bank attempt. That proved to be Morris’ salvation, and though he barely escaped scratching in the side, he ran out the remaining balls to win the match 5-3. Team Europe leads Team USA 8 games to 7.Johnny Archer matched up with England’s snooker champion Steve Davis next. Davis exhibited some problems with his break, but he hung with “The Scorpion” until the score reached 2 apiece. After Davis scratched on his next break, Archer cleared that table and broke and ran the following to reach the hill. Davis again came up dry on his break, and Archer, with a great 5-8 carom, ran the rack and leapt into the air as he won 5-2. Score: Team USA and Team Europe tied at 8 games each.Holland’s Nick Van den Berg and Earl “The Pearl” Strickland met in the following game. Although Van den Berg had a great day on Saturday, today he seemed a bit hesitant and unsure. He got a golden break in the second rack to tie at 1 game apiece, and they traded games until a break-and-run put Strickland up 3-2. A bungled safety attempt by Van den Berg set Strickland up for a short-rail bank on the 3, and he made it and ran out to reach the hill. He missed a 7 ball down the rail, giving Van den Berg another game, and when “The Pearl” missed a combo in the following rack, bringing his cue stick down sharply, Van den Berg ran out to make it a hill-hill match. However, Strickland broke and ran out the last rack to win 5-4 and promptly left after storming away from the interviewer. Team USA leads Team Europe 9 to 8.New Yorker Tony Robles met frequent competitor Mika Immonen in a match that proved to be the turnaround point for Team USA. While Robles’ play had proved somewhat inconsistent until this point, he was smooth and in control throughout his match with “Iceman.” The Finn took the first game after a nice break-and-run, but Robles won the next two after a lucky kick. Immonen won a safety battle in the following rack to knot the score at 2 apiece, but Robles played superbly and made all of the right decisions to win the next three games in a row to win the match 5-2. Team USA reached the hill in the race to 11 with Team Europe still at 8.Former U.S. Open champion Ralf Souquet met Charlie Williams in a match that brought Team Europe another game closer to the goal. Serious defense play on both players’ sides brought the score to 3 games apiece, but when Williams’ safeties started failing, Souquet was right there to capitalize, and he soon reached the hill 4-3. Souquet missed a 4 ball up the rail in the last rack, but Williams was presented with a tight squeeze on the 6 ball and failed to make it, and Souquet ran out to win 5-3. Williams now holds the dubious honor of being the only player, other than Michael Coltrain, on a winning Mosconi Cup team to never earn a point for his team. Score 1 more for Team Europe.Team Europe sent Marcus Chamat to the last match, which was against reigning U.S. Open champ Jeremy Jones. “Double J” broke and ran the first rack, and a great short-rail bank saw him earn the next as well. “Napoleon” got a game under his belt after Jones left him a shot after a great jump shot, bringing the score to 2-1. However, he rattled the 5 ball in the following rack as the pressure mounted and the audience roared louder, and Jones got that rack and broke and ran the next to reach the hill. But Chamat fought back and capitalized on two errors by his opponent and brought the score to 4-3, pounding his chest with his fist as he saluted his teammates. He made nothing on his last break, but there was no shot on the 1, and Chamat screamed, “I’ll take it!” Jones opted to push, but Chamat unwisely chose to play safe and left his opponent an open shot. Jones studied the table for a while and then proceeded to slowly run the final rack out to win the match 5-3. Final score: Team USA 11, Team Europe 9.Mika Immonen was awarded the Most Valuable Player by Matchroom Sport, and each player earned $8,000 win or lose for participating in the event. Next year’s event will either be held in London or Holland, and the announcement will be made in January.Visit InsidePOOL for the latest in the sport of billiards and pool.

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