USA Starts With a Win at Mosconi Cup

USA Starts With a Win at Mosconi CupThe America billiards team made the perfect start to the defence of their PartyPoker.com Mosconi Cup title as they fought back from 5-4 down to win the opening team match.They had led 4-2 but Europe won three racks in a row and looked to have been in pole position to claim a point. But a critical miss in the next from Ralf Souquet saw it become a hill-hill affair and USA ran throught the final rack as Earl Strickland clinched the victory.Discuss the PartyPoker.com Mosconi Cup
With the 30-second shot clock enforced for the first time in the competition's history, the pressure was on all the players in the six-man team match.The Americans took an early lead as John Schmidt sunk the first 9-ball of the tournament but an error from the USA side in the second rack presented Ralf Souquet the opportunity to level the match, which he took.A 4-9 combination restored America's advantage and it soon became 3-1 when debutant Mike Davis held his nerve with a straightforward shot to pocket the 9-ball.As expected, there was a partisan and colourful crowd in Rotterdam and they soon had something to cheer about as Thomas Engert narrowed the deficit to 3-2.Most early racks had seen few mistakes but that changed in the sixth when Engert, Johnny Archer and David Alcaide each missed attempts at the green six before a fortunate table-length bank shot on the 8-ball from Morris helped it become 4-2.The crowd were cheering every successful shot from the Europeans and Souquet made it 4-3 when he cut the 9-ball into the top corner pocket, despite being left a tough chance by Alcaide.In the eighth, Davis missed his shot at the 1-ball and eventually Alcaide clinched the rack with a confidence-building pot.It was proving to be a nervous start for Davis as he then failed to convert the 5-ball and Dutchman Nick van den Berg delighted the supporters by winning the third rack in a row for Europe to take them to the hill at 5-4.But Morris made it a hill-hill match as USA benefited when a rare Souquet error saw he miss the 2-ball for 5-5 with America breaking in the last rack, a benefit of claiming the earlier lag. Strickland pocketed the last ball of the match to put the reigning champions 1-0 in front.

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