Mosconi Cup Day 1: Disaster For Team USA

Team USA pulled out all the stops and brought on paper what was supposed to be the strongest U.S. side in years and they fail to register 1 point on day one. The Mosconi Cup is scheduled to be a 4 day event but that looks unlikely after today.

The biggest surprise to me was how average Shane Van Boening looked. As pool fans, we are used to seeing SVB almost robot like in how he breaks and runs rack after rack. However with the no 'breaking from the side rail' rule in place Shane looked lost trying to figure out the break. Each break I witnessed on Sky Sports 2 seemed to be either a scratch or a dry break - very unlike Shane, who under normal rules, is one of  the best breakers in the game.

It might be a bit unfair to put so much responsibility on SVB but he is the 3 time U.S Champ from this era. He might be the least experienced team member but he is the best player on paper America has and is the only one who is currently winning major tournaments. With his shaky start it seemed to throw the whole team for a loop. Another surprise would be that most people would think Earl would be the reason for most of their troubles. However he has been the strongest player on the team up to date and he and Rodney Morris were a victim of some bad rolls in their match against Darren Appleton and Karl Boyes. I believe Appleton even pocketed a 9 off the snap; on a race to 6 that can be devastating.

Perhaps it is now a foregone conclusion that Europe will once again be the Champs. But what is unclear is whether or not the U.S. will be able to make a showing of this. There was a time when people feared the end of the Mosconi Cup because the lack of competitiveness from team Europe.The 20 year Anniversary of the Mosconi Cup could reignite this argument except now Team USA has been the team unable to compete for several years in a row. Hopefully the U.S. will get their act together and make a go of this, because an 11-5 blow-out does nothing for pool at this time especially on American home soil where the game has been waning as of late.