Team USA Leads by One Point

Team USA Leads by one Point2004 Mosconi Cup Day Two Europe 4 – 5 USAHotel Zuiderduin, Egmond aan Zee - Team USA got the better of the opening singles matches at the 2004 Mosconi Cup as both Charlie Williams and Gabe Owen ran out winners to put their side into a one-point lead.Finland’s Mika Immonen, playing on his birthday, opened the evening session with an quality win over Johnny Archer, but it was Williams who really impressed for Team USA, taking out Euro hot-shot Niels Feijen comfortably in a match that ended a long Mosconi Cup losing streak for “The Korean Dragon.”In the final game of the evening, newcomer Gabe Owen overcame some traditional Mosconi nerves to sneak past veteran Steve Davis, playing his 50th Mosconi Cup match.Play continues tomorrow afternoon with the final doubles matches before the six players who did not play tonight contest three more singles games.
Mika Immonen 5 - 3 Johnny Archer Mika Immonen lived up to his “Iceman” nickname as he kept his cool to claim a superb victory over American captain Johnny Archer in the first of the 2004 Mosconi Cup singles matches on Friday evening.Immonen played aggressively throughout and capitalized on the American’s mistakes, and his potting under pressure held him in good stead. Archer took the first rack as he ran out a clinical rack from the break to settle his early nerves. Immonen then opened up the table superbly with a tough cut on the 1 ball following the break, and he ran out the level things up.Faced with no potable shot on the 1 ball in the next, Archer played a poor safety, and an aggressive long table pot put the Finn in the driving seat. The layout was very difficult, including a long 4-6 combo, but Immonen executed it with aplomb to take the rack against the head. Immonen was forced to play safe in the next, and he trapped Archer in a snooker from which he could not escape with a table-length bank. That gave Europe ball in hand, and Immonen made no mistakes to go into the lead at 3–1.Archer pushed out in the fifth, and Immonen took on a hard jump shot on the 1 ball when handing the table back to Archer looked the safer option. The Finn missed the pot and cruelly scratched to give Archer a great chance. Nerves got the better of “The Scorpion,” though, as he knuckled an easy 2 ball into the middle pocket, but Immonen also wilted as he scratched once again, playing an ineffective safety. With ball in hand, Archer kept it together to take the rack.A break out of the top draw saw three balls down, and Immonen completed an elementary run out to get to the hill at 4–2. Archer’s break let Immonen back to the table, and he laid a tight snooker for the American captain. Archer, though, kicked off the bottom rail and fluked the 9 ball up the table and into the pocket for 4–3. Another good break by Immonen gave him a golden chance to lock the cue ball tight behind the 5 ball, leaving Archer a three-cushion escape. He got out of it superbly, but Immonen made the shot of the game, cutting the 2 ball into a blind pocket and leaving himself perfect on the 3 ball. From there “Iceman” cleared to give Team Europe the point and put them into the lead at 4–3. “I enjoyed that – it’s called celebrating your birthday in style,” Immonen smiled. “It feels good against their captain, and it was a crucial win. It didn’t surprise me that Johnny wanted to go out first to show the way, and maybe I’ve put a little nick in their plan. That cut on the two ball felt especially good--I knew it was a tough shot percentage-wise, but that changes when you’re confident.” Niels Feijen 1 – 5 Charlie Williams Charlie Williams ended his six-match Mosconi Cup losing run with a resounding 5-1 victory over Niels Feijen. In front of his home fans, Feijen never really got going, and Williams left his nerves in the practice room to draw Team USA level.The 2004 Mosconi Cup looks like it will go right to the wire, with neither side able to edge more than one point ahead, and Williams’ performance showed that each and every player in Egmond-Aan-Zee has got the professionalism to stand the big stage.Williams won the lag with a perfect effort and ran the first rack, but Feijen responded in kind to level the scores. Williams, who has struggled to find form over the opening two sessions, then produced some of his best play to complete a tricky clearance in the third after a safety exchange.Lady Luck smiled on the American in the next rack when he fluked the red 3 and rounded off the rest of the balls to take a 3-1 lead. The next break left Williams snookered on the 2 ball, and he surprisingly pushed out before being put back in, when he left the pot on the blue available for Feijen. The Dutchman looked set to cut the deficit in the fifth rack, edging his way through a nervy run-out, but he jawed the 7 ball in to the left middle pocket, and Williams took advantage to reach the hill. When Feijen came up dry, the end of Williams’ disappointing run in the event came to an end, and he punched the air with delight as the point was sealed.“I thought I might go for the record of consecutive losses,” he joked. “That’s the way nine-ball goes--I’ve been playing well in practice, though, so I knew a win would come. I don’t think I lost confidence in my ability--I belong on this team, and it’s a great team effort--we feed off each other. The Brunswick table’s playing good, and my sponsors, Predator, are here, so all the outside factors are working. I just have to get my game together.”Steve Davis 4 – 5 Gabe Owen In the final match of Friday evening, Steve Davis’s 50th Mosconi Cup outing ended in disappointment as he failed to take advantage of nervous debutante Gabe Owen and went down 5–4 in an exciting, albeit error-strewn, encounter.The match began with Davis missing the pink 4 into the middle pocket, a shot that had troubled one or two other players earlier. Owen cashed in gratefully and ran out to take the opener. Davis failed to get anything down in the next, and Owen cast aside any fears the Americans may have had over nerves as he coolly ran out the rack to go to 2-0.Owen just made the 6 ball on the break in the third but ran into trouble, leaving the white parked behind the brown 7 with the 5 on. He missed the jump shot but a nervy Davis missed himself, leaving the 5 ball hanging. The Oklahoman made it but badly missed a tough 7 ball into the top left corner in what was developing into a comedy of errors. Davis made it and then completed the 8 and 9 to take the rack.Davis made the 1 ball on the break and left himself a long shot on the 2 ball. Instead of rolling it home, he jacked the cue up to try and squeeze some action onto the white but missed badly. The pair exchanged safeties before Davis forced his opponent into a miss to give himself ball in hand. Davis, though, missed a long straight 8 ball cueing off the rail before Owen dramatically missed the 9 ball to gift the rack to Europe and square it at 2–2.Owen made two balls off the next break and steadied his nerves considerably as he ran the remaining seven balls to go into a 3-2 lead. Davis, though, proved his “bouncebackability” as he ran out from the break with an inch-perfect clearance. Owen had a disaster in the next as he scratched moving from 3 to 4 as the cue ball nudged the orange 5 and deflected into the middle bag. With ball in hand, Davis made no mistake and went to the hill at 4–3. Breaking for the match, Davis made the 6 ball but left the thinnest of table length cuts on the 1 ball. He made it and got superb position on the blue 2, much to the delight of the crowd. However, he left himself too much of an angle on a 3-6 combination and missed it. Owen went through the balls but ran out of position on the 7, but he was able to tie Davis in a tight snooker. Davis escaped but left the ball on for Owen, who cleared to go hill–hill.Owen played a brave shot under severe pressure to cut the 3 ball down the rail and left himself a shot on the pink 4. From there, he cleared the table to take his first Mosconi Cup singles point and put his side into the lead at 5–4.A relieved Owen said afterwards, “I've been playing good. Steve's a great player and although this is the first time I’ve met him, I’ve been watching him for years on TV. I missed a couple of balls but overall played pretty good. Our captain, Johnny, is keeping me calm, letting me play my game and helping me a lot. We’re in the lead overnight, but it’s far from over, there's plenty of pool to be played.” Visit InsidePOOL for the latest news from the Mosconi Cup.

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