I think Scott Frost hit the nail on the head. There’s too much talking coaching during shots. ‘I like this’. You’re not shooting! These guys are pros. It should be ‘Welcome to my world, you’ll shoot shots you never thought you would. I’ll make you a champion’.
2025 Reyes Cup, Oct 16-19, Manilla. Team Asia vs Team World
- Thread starter jbart65
- Start date
Is it just me, or does Team ROW that has Europeans teaming up with Americans take away from the extraordinary rivalry of the Mosconi Cup? Just doesn't feel right seeing Sky on the same team as FSR and Shaw, not to mention JJ coaching mostly Europeans. What exactly is the pride of a "Rest of the World" team other not making sure the Asians don't win? Not sure if this was debated at all during the MR strategy meetings, but I think the concept of the ROW team was a mistake.
Badpenguin
Well-known member
JJ has never come close to winning anything as a captain, neither him nor Sky should be anywhere near this. Other than maybe commentating.
Well Shane doesn't talk much or seem to have any interest in 9 ball doubles. Was all smiles at ultimate pool USA though
The "rest of the world" strategy was to recover from the unanticipated problem that arose when Fedor was proclaimed American by Matchroom in advance of the 2023 Mosconi Cup. The original Reyes Cup idea in 2024 was to have the winning team at the Mosconi Cup face off against Team Asia, but it backfired.
While proclaiming Fedor to be American in 2023 made the Mosconi Cup a bit more competitive, it made Fedor ineligible for inclusion on Team Europe at the 2024 Reyes Cup. Hence, the about face by Matchroom. Instead of having the winning Mosconi team face off against Team Asia, Team "rest of the world" would now do so, opening the door for Fedor's inclusion. Personally, I am glad for Fedor, a superstar of the highest order, that he can now participate.
As the Greek philosopher Heraclitus said, "the only constant is change."
Yes, but the early participants were not household names and American pool was quite new in Europe. The only two European pool players most of us Americans knew back in the mid-90s were future BCA Hall of Famers Ortmann and Souquet. Even Chamat, Lely and Feijen had yet to hit the scene. Team Europe put snooker players on the team, for at least they were known.
Today, and in many ways because of the exceptional efforts of Matchroom, the top players in American, European, and Asian pool are extremely well known worldwide and growing the Reyes Cup should be easy now that the business model for this kind of team event is well established.
In my opinion, if managed well, the Reyes Cup event should be an almost instant financial success.
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Badpenguin
Well-known member
fedor here, fedor there. asia is so deep in top talent the rest of the world may need a ball handicap for it to be competitive. taiwan just won the world pairs event with their b-team. wu jiaqing, zheng xiaohuai and half a dozen other chinese are probably 820+ if they were to play american pool for a year. ko brothers, of course, are both double world champions. and for the real fargo nerds; ameer ali is also asian.
anyway. hope they play better tomorrow and make some kind of match of it.
anyway. hope they play better tomorrow and make some kind of match of it.
Iwishiwasrich
Well-known member
Call it whatever you want but so far I will call it embarrassing
Confirmed
Take me in the same boat with ya. MR should have kept the formula they declared: winning Mosconi Cup team vs Asia. Do you all remember how it was presented last year? "You fans were asking for it, here you go" (Team Asia in teams invitational event).
I dislike the whole idea of Team ROW where Europe and USA are supposed to gel together, for the reasons mentioned by jsp. Who made MR think a winning Mosconi Cup team is not good enough this year?
Efren was spotted in VIP first row seating during opening match at least. Must have been there whole day long, with Aristeo Puyat also.
I feel I explained this in post #125.
Flakeandrun
Well-known member
Why not?….. meritocracy
For all the criticism of Team World, Team Asia wasn’t actually great. Chua was great. Biado played very well, but Moritz had his chances in their singles match. He didn’t take them.
Manas was on or a bit above par. Yapp and Duong clearly underperformed.
It was the litany of errors by ROW that did them in. If, as in Groundhog Day, ROW played the day over and over, I don’t think they could be that bad again.
Some fans say the team match is a crapshoot, but it really isn’t. ROW made clear, identifiable errors to lose the team match. FSR missed a very makeable 8 ball in the very first game to cost ROW a 1-0 lead. Then Moritz underdrew a 6 ball to end what should have been a runout in a fourth game. ROW lost again.
FSR missed several big shots in the first doubles match and he often left Shaw in bad spots. Sky cost ROW in the final doubles match.
Had Team ROW just played to par, or even slightly under par, the score after day 1 is 2-2.
Maybe team Asia will show true dominance the next few days, but they didn’t on the first day. They can thank their foes.
Manas was on or a bit above par. Yapp and Duong clearly underperformed.
It was the litany of errors by ROW that did them in. If, as in Groundhog Day, ROW played the day over and over, I don’t think they could be that bad again.
Some fans say the team match is a crapshoot, but it really isn’t. ROW made clear, identifiable errors to lose the team match. FSR missed a very makeable 8 ball in the very first game to cost ROW a 1-0 lead. Then Moritz underdrew a 6 ball to end what should have been a runout in a fourth game. ROW lost again.
FSR missed several big shots in the first doubles match and he often left Shaw in bad spots. Sky cost ROW in the final doubles match.
Had Team ROW just played to par, or even slightly under par, the score after day 1 is 2-2.
Maybe team Asia will show true dominance the next few days, but they didn’t on the first day. They can thank their foes.
Even in your unlikely scenario, there would have to be a baseline robustness level.
Strip out Ali and six of the 10 players in the Reyes are in the top 10 Fargo ratings.