By: Markus Noé
At 11:00 am local time live from the Tropicana Casino in Las Vegas, Nevada the 2015 edition of the Mosconi Cup got underway. The Americans struggles in this event recently have been well documented and it was important for them to get off to a good start.
The First event in each Mosconi Cup is the five man team match. This is played similar to scotch doubles with the exception that the full roster from both teams are in play. On paper with the addition of Mike Dechaine and Skyler Woodward, this American team looks to be the strongest it has been in sometime. They did not disappoint coming out on top with a thrilling 5-4 win in the first match.
Scotch doubles was to be the second match of the day and this featured Mike Dechaine/Corey Deuel vs Nick van den Berg/Karl Boyes. The Americans came out firing on all cylinders carrying the momentum from their earlier win and gained a 4-2 lead. Boyes looked to be particularly uncomfortable in this match early on but came back with some solid shot making in the end to allow the Europeans a chance to steal the match. While only needing one more rack to secure the 2-0 lead overall the Americans had ball in hand with 4 balls left. It was an uncharacteristic miss on the 7 ball by Dechaine that killed all the momentum they built and allowed the Europeans to come all the way back to win 5-4.
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| Niels Feijen |
When the scoreline was 4-2 for Europe, Bergman looked to be on a bit of a charge after winning the last rack then once again the 7 ball gave him trouble. He needed to use topspin to roll up for the 8 on the top rail and unfortunately the ball skidded on him resulting in a devastating miss. To add insult to injury Bergman did not exactly give away the rack as the cue ball rested near the corner pocket and the 7 landed midway up the side rail. Feijen had already used his one extension for this rack and with time running out on the shot clock he bent down and fired at the cross side. He hit the horn of the side pocket and it went directly to the opposite corner pocket with the cue ball landing perfectly for the run out.
The following scotch doubles match featured two Mosconi Cup rookies against one another, Sky Woodward and Albin Ouschan. Woodward played with Shane VanBoening while Ouschan played with Darren Appleton. The Americans got off to a flawless start going up 4-0 in this race to 5 alternate break format. The Europeans were able to win one rack but that was it, as it was tied a 2-2 after four matches. It should be noted that Woodward looked the most confident out of the American players today and was fantastic in his debut. At only 22 years old Woodward is the youngest player ever to make a Mosconi Cup team.
Darren Appleton vs Shane VanBoening was the final match of the day, with the winner providing their team the overnight lead. These two are no strangers to one another meeting up late in tournaments all the time, however Appleton has been dominate against the American # 1 in the Mosconi Cup over the years. I credit Europe's team captain Macus Chamat for a smart pick here knowing full well that American team captain Marc Wilson will send out SVB in the final match of the day and who better to counter that with than Appleton.
SVB made an incredible 1-9 bank combo in the first rack but was unlucky to scratch, leaving an open table. From there Appleton appeared to thrive while SVB appeared a bit rattled missing an 8 ball a few racks later. Europe went on to win 5-1 and lead 3-2 overall going into day 2. Play resumes tomorrow at 2:00 pm eastern, the stream can be found at http://www.pool.livesport.tv/
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