NEWS - 12-23-03 Mosconi Cup - We shortly failed to defend the title

The 10th edition of the Mosconi Cup between the teams Europe and USA was organized for the first time in the USA. The clash took place in the MGM Grand Hotel & Casino in the entertainment paradise Las Vegas, and not in Bethnal Green, a district of London. Not less than 120 supporters from Europe, amongst which also 15 Germans, had made the long trip over the ocean to watch the matches and to discover the gambler’s paradise. In the arena, almost sold out during the entire event with 400 spectators, the match took off like a rocket, just like in the previous years. The ambiance was great and sometimes it was hard to tell if Team Europe had an away or a home game. Many thanks to the many supporters which had travelled along with us..

On day one, challenger USA had a better start and took a 3-2 lead:
T. Hohmann 4-5 J. Archer (0-1)
M. Immonen & M. Chamat 5-1 C. Williams & T. Robles (1-1)
R. Souquet 3-5 R. Morris (1-2)
S. Davis & N. van den Berg 4-5 E. Strickland & J. Jones (1-3)
M. Immonen 5-3 J. Archer (2-3)

Day two was pretty similar and the defending champion had to wait for better times to come – 3-6:
Chamat 3-5 Jones (2-4)
Davis & van den Berg 3-5 Robles & Strickland (2-5)
Immonen 5-4 Williams (3-5)
Souquet & Hohmann 1-5 Archer & Morris (3-6)

On day three, the second-last day, something unbelievable happened. We could win all 5 matches of the day and turned the score from 3-6 to 8-6:
van den Berg 5-3 Robles (4-6)
Souquet & Hohmann 5-4 Archer & Morris (5-6)
Davis 5-0 Strickland (6-6)
Immonen & Chamat 5-2 Williams & Jones (7-6)
Souquet 5-3 Jones (8-6)

  Now, we needed another three wins to successfully defend our title.
But things were to be different. At the beginning of the final day, the US boys started very strong. Upon two unnecessary errors by World Champion T. Hohmann, R. Morris could score a bit lucky 5-3 and gave the signal for our fate. S. Davis seemed to be nervous and lost his match against J. Archer 2-5. Now, N. van den Berg had to face E. Strickland. The US player had shown a good performance so far, but made the match difficult for himself. However, he scored the point for his team and team USA took the lead again (9-8). Then, undefeated M. Immonen had to play T. Robles.

Theoretically, this configuration was an advantage for team Europe, but reality was different. The player from Finland made a few mistakes and had to accept his first defeat 2-5. First, we turned a 3-6 into an 8-6 lead, and then had to watch it turn again into an 8-10. Now, I had to play C. Williams and the slightest mistake could have meant an early decision. I started very well, and in spite of three lucky jump shots of the „Korean Dragon“, I could keep the match even. When leading 4-3, I had solved all difficult balls and positions, we were very close to score the first point of the day. But a stupid mistake of mine gave new hope to the US player. But Williams could not benefit from this situation and missed the 6 ball. I finally could score the point (5-3) and we were only trailing 9-10. Now, it was up to „Napoleon“ M. Chamat to equal the match by winning another point. But right from the start, J. Jones, U.S. Open winner 2003, made clear that he wanted to avoid a showdown between World Champion Hohmann and former World Champion Strickland. He took a rapid 4-1 lead, when the Swede missed an easy rack at 1-2 to equal the score. But then, suspense came back. Chamat fought himself back into the match 3-4 and had the choice at a push-out. Nobody understood why he took this pushed-out shot, and then he left an open table to his opponent. Jones kept his composure and lead his team USA to the 8th Mosconi Cup win in the 10 year history of this trophy. The Americans cheered this victory and once more, we were very disappointed. However, it was great fun once more to play for this team and it sure was not the last battle in this prestigious duel. Many thanks and congratulations to the promoters Matchroom and Sky Sports for this successful event. And last, but not least, thank you to the great local and overseas crowd for the great ambiance.
Next year, we will bring back home the cup...