USA Close The Gap To Two Points

USA Close The Gap To Two PointsThe American billiards team narrowed the gap to two points by sealing the opening match of Day Four.The USA side defeated Europe 6-3 to make the overall score in the 2006 PartyPoker.com Mosconi Cup to 9-7 in the Europeans favour at the Cruise Terminal, Rotterdam.Discuss the PartyPoker.com Mosconi Cup
Team Europe won the opening lag and looked to be in a good position to win the first rack. But a poor positional shot from Imran Majid going from the brown seven to black eight forced Nick van den Berg to play safe.Mika Immonen later missed the 8-ball and two fine shots, one from Rodney Morris and one from Mike Davis, saw America steal the rack and move into a 1-0 lead. The advantage was soon doubled as USA ran through the second with John Schmidt, the only player not to have won any of his singles, doubles or triples matches so far, potted a confidence-building 9-ball.David Alcaide broke in the third and potted the 3-ball but left Ralf Souquet with no shot on the 1-ball. The Kaiser reached for his jump cue but got his effort wrong as the cue ball ended up on the arena floor to give America ball in hand.Both sides missed chances to take the rack with Immonen making the decisive mistake by missing the brown seven and Davis again finished it off to move the score to 3-0.Corey Deuel broke in the fourth and USA were never in trouble as John Schmidt completed the run out as America closed in on the first point of the day.A missed 5-9 combination from Davis brought Europe to the table and Majid, who had earlier made an error by losing position going from the two to the three, sunk the 9-ball for Europe's first rack of the afternoon.Davis did well to pot the 4-ball in the next thanks to a jump shot but with no position on the green six forced Deuel to play safe. He left a chance for Immonen but the Finn failed to convert, although the ball went safe before Strickland's swerve attempt at the same ball was also unsuccessful.Alcaide sunk the tricky 6-ball and that led to Majid potting the 9-ball for the second time in the match as the score moved to 4-2.Europe continued their fightback by running through the seventh as Alcaide clinched the third rack in a row. But that run ended in the next as America moved to the hill at 5-3.Souquet failed with an attempted two-rail escape after Morris had left him snookered on the blue two to give the US side ball in hand before Davis again sealed the rack. The Europeans had a chance in the ninth but Alcaide missed the red three and a 3-9 carom from Strickland sealed the point.

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