Mosconi Cup Highlights from Day 2: Team USA Doesn’t Back Down

Story By NYC Grind Contributor, Geoff Conway, all photos by Ricky Bryant, Inside English Magazine.

The first match up in Friday’s Mosconi Cup play was a Scotch doubles match between Ralf Souquet (GER) & Niels Feijen (NED) and USA’s Johnny Archer & Shane Van Boening. Johnny wins the lag from Ralf, and it is soon clear that the 3 and the 9 ball are almost touching by the bottom corner pocket, and that at some point they are going to have to be moved. 

After a few safety play shots on the two ball finally Team Euro get to break them up while playing the two ball. Europe immediately runs out the rack for the important first game. Score 0-1 to Team Europe.

Niels scratches on the break in rack two, and the USA pairing soon have win  to put the score at 1-1.

Shane breaks rack three and the Americans soon have this game in the bag. Score 2-1 to Team USA. It should be noted that this pairing seemed to gel well together, and did not confer too much when at the table.

Ralf came up dry on the next rack, and Johnny and Shane soon had rack four under their belt, putting the score at 3-1 to Team USA.

Johnny was breaking well as was witnessed in rack five, when he made four balls on the break. The four balls in question were the 1, 2, 3 and 4 balls, which I found odd. They were also racking the 9 ball on the spot so as to avoid the corner balls flying straight into the bottom pockets, which makes Johnny’s feat of making four balls even more amazing. Shane had to make a clutch shot on the 5 ball to keep them in the rake. The rest of the balls were soon mopped up to put them a little further ahead of Team Europe. The score line now read 4-1 to Team USA.

Niels breaks rack six makes two balls, but leaves no shot for Ralf. Ralf plays a safe, but Johnny plays a better one. Niels left a makeable 2 ball, and Shane went on to make the two ball and also split up a cluster that would have been a problem. The USA Team they proceeded to make an easy run out. Score now 5-1 to Team USA. At this point, I kept thinking, “Wow, who would have ever thought that the USA Team would be in such a commanding position when supposedly coming here this week as the underdog?”

Team Europe managed to win game seven after a safety battle on the 4 ball. Score now 5-2 to Team USA.

Ralf breaks game eight making the 6 ball, but only leaves a piece of the 1 ball showing for Niels. Niels plays a nice safe off the side of the 1 ball, leaving Johnny behind the 2 ball. Johnny proceeds to go two cushions and reply with just as good a safety, putting the cue ball back in exactly the same position behind the two.  Ralf then made a supurb kick shot and makes the 1 ball, but ends up locked behind the 9 ball at the other end of the table.

Niels missed the kick and allowed Team USA to run out the rack. I would like to point out that Shane had to make a really fine cut on the seven ball, after Johnny ran a little long with his position shot. Again, I think that everybody was amazed that Team USA was so far ahead not only in the game count, but in the confidence area as well.

The Europeans just did not look at ease at the table, and their body language spoke volumes. The final score was 6-2 to Team USA, and I would also add that Shane really has shown us how good a player he is in the last two days play, and for me he is the stand out player that exudes such confidence. If only he would practice! Just joking.

Germany’s Thorsten Hohmann and USA’s Corey Deuel (who both reside in Florida) were next up in a singles match. On paper, I thought that this match could go either way, and unfortunately for me the guy sitting in front of me said that he liked Thorsten over Corey. 

I could not let this gentleman get away with such a statement, so I bet him a twenty that Corey would win. Well unfortunately for me, Thorsten beat Corey 6-4, with Corey breaking illegally in the last rack, without three balls going past the head string.

Corey, who is the afficianado of the soft break was at a disadvantage with this rule in play. Maybe someone overlooked this point when picking him for the team, as he is definately not suited to that format of break.

The next match up was Dennis Hatch & Oscar Dominguez against Mika Immonen (FIN) & Darren Appleton (UK). I was a little concerned just how young Oscar would stand up under the presssure of the bright lights and the pressure cooker atmosphere. Well, I need not have worried, as he was under care of of Dennis, who seemed to have a father figure influence over his student. They played in total unity, never putting a foot wrong, and stamped their authority on the whole match.

It was not long before the USA Team were up by two games, and the problem was that Darren came up dry two times, and Mika once, proving that as always, you cannot win games if you make nothing on the break.

The USA side soon had the scoreline to 4-1, before the Euro side got the score back to 4-3. It was in the next game that Mika came up dry allowing the USA Team to get the score to 5-3.

In the next rack Dennis broke but had no shot. Safety ensued, and Darren fluked the 4 ball, and landed perfect on a 5-9 combo. Score now at 5-4 to Team USA.

The next rack turned out to be the last, when Mika rushed a shot using two bridges, when he heard the shot clock beeping, and the referee said “8 seconds.”  A foul was called by the referee, and Dennis and Oscar ran out the rack. Final score 6-4 to Team USA.

The next and final match of the day turned out to be the best match of the day, with Johnny Archer against Darren Appleton (UK). This match turned into a humdinger, with Darren forging ahead in the match to a score line of 5-1 in Europe’s favor. 

Well apparently Johnny never got the memo, because he ground it out and even though it was alternate break, he managed to keep pulling games back.

In game 9, Darren scratched on the break, letting Johnny get to 5-4 to Team Europe. Halfway through the next rack, Darren scratches while trying to kick a ball. Johnny runs out to put himself on the hill. Wow, who would have thought it!

On the final rack, Darren scratches on the break, and Johnny makes the run out to get the win. The patriotic fans go wild and Johnny receives a standing ovation. As good as this is for Nick Varner and Team USA, who now have a score of 7-2 over the European side. 

This does not bode well for the UK organizers, who I would think would like this event to play out to Sunday, with a close finish. It does not look like this will be happening with the big lead that the USA Team has. I guess all eyes will be focused on Saturday’s play, so we will have to see how it plays out.

Thank you for taking the time to visit our web site, and we look forward to posting the next episode of this exciting saga.