Europe 10 – 3 USA
Appleton / Feijen 5 – 2 Dechaine / Van Boening
Shaw / Ouschan 5 – 3 Morris / Woodward
Albin Ouschan 5 – 4 Skyler Woodward
Gray / Appleton 4 – 5 Bergman / Morris
Darren Appleton and Niels Feijen
TEAM AMERICA lives to fight another day at the Alexandra Palace as the pairing of Rodney Morris and Justin Bergman won the final match of the evening in the final rack to stall European celebrations at the 2016 Betfair Mosconi Cup. With the Europeans leading 7-2 going into the final session, they need to win all four of the evening matches to reach the required 11 points to retain the Mosconi Cup for the sixth time.
“We can smell the Cup!” said Euro captain Marcus Chamat.
“It is really hard to win every match but we were close. We have Jayson first tomorrow and then Niels so we have a good line-up for the first two tomorrow.
Jayson Shaw and Rodney Morris
The Betfair Mosconi Cup is the annual Europe v USA 9 ball showdown. It runs from Tuesday 6th to Friday 9th December with all sessions getting underway at 18.30 GMT. There are a potential 21 singles and doubles matches with the first team to reach 11 carrying off the famous trophy.
Albin Ouschan secured two points for the Europeans as he won his doubles match with Jayson Shaw and then defeated Skyler Woodward in the singles. Neither match was of high quality as all the players felt the pressure but when Ouschan won a final rack decider against Woodward, it put Europe on the hill.
Albin Ouschan
“That was a huge match and it felt almost like the last match from last year; I played Skyler in singles and it went to 5-4. I didn’t feel really comfortable in the beginning, I made a couple of mistakes and was unlucky with the break at the beginning, but I was fighting and stayed focused and it was a happy ending for me, said Ouschan.
The final match was a thriller as each team rode their luck in a pressure cooker environment but it was Rodney Morris and Justin Bergman who denied Darren Appleton and Mark Gray the chance to pot the winning 9 ball.
Morris said, “We are fighting hard and Justin played unbelievable. We need to try and hold our nerve because it is crunch time but little victories, we are trying to win each match and get momentum and have some energy for our team.
“We will worry about winning the lag and getting the advantage, but if you win one it can bring two and you never know – Donald Trump is going to be US president so we know anything can happen!
“They brought me in for the experience and I will not let these guys get down because that is not what we are about. We are about team unity and as much as people say we are not united we are all pulling for each other and if I dog it, I know my team-mates feel it.”
Albin Ouschan
Play continues tomorrow with the doubles match that was to have taken place on the Wednesday evening.
The live stream is available from www.matchroompool.com
2016 MOSCONI CUP is sponsored Betfair. Rasson Billiards supply the Official Table. The cloth is supplied by Iwan Simonis and the Official Balls are Super Aramith by Saluc. Predator is the Official Cue of the event and Ultimate Team Gear provide all Mosconi Cup apparel.
Luke Riches, Matchroom Sport: [email protected]
Notes: MATCHROOM SPORT is one of the world’s leading producers of televised sport and is responsible for over 1,000 hours of original programming across a range of sports. Based in the UK and chaired by charismatic founder Barry Hearn, they operate three pool events; the Mosconi Cup, the World Cup of Pool and the World Pool Masters. In addition, the company produce a multitude of events in darts, snooker, tenpin, golf, fishing, ping pong, poker and boxing.