European Mosconi Team

spartan said:

Looking at Chamat's previous wildcard picks, he has never picked a freshman/ first timer. He will likely go for a pair of seasoned hands/ leaders to provide "adult supervision" to the trio of young ones/ newbies. Last year he picked Shaw who was nowhere in MC top ranking and Albin who just missed out in the rankings. Following the same rationale, I am guessing this year will be Shaw and Ralf or Niels.

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As a fan of Team USA, I'd rather see Feijen or Souquet than Gorst, as I see Gorst as far more dangerous. It's bizarre that winning the European 9-Ball Championships, which in Gorst's case required beating Josh Filler in the final this year, carried no points. The absence of points for that very difficult title won is the only reason Gorst didn't have a chance to gain an automatic qualifying spot on Team Europe.

The Mosconi Cup has never been played without at least one player from Great Britain. For the first 23 cups (1994-2016), every Team Europe had at least one player from England. That ended in 2017 (and continued in 2018) when Shaw was the only player from Great Britain.

Will 2019 be the first time with no player from Great Britain?

sjm said:

As a fan of Team USA, I'd rather see Feijen or Souquet than Gorst, as I see Gorst as far more dangerous. It's bizarre that winning the European 9-Ball Championships, which in Gorst's case required beating Josh Filler in the final this year, carried no points. The absence of points for that very difficult title won is the only reason Gorst didn't have a chance to gain an automatic qualifying spot on Team Europe.

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I agree. I always love seeing good pool but I can hope that something will keep Filler, Gorst, Albin of the oceans, and Chinahov away from the MC.

AtLarge said:

The Mosconi Cup has never been played without at least one player from Great Britain. For the first 23 cups (1994-2016), every Team Europe had at least one player from England. That ended in 2017 (and continued in 2018) when Shaw was the only player from Great Britain.

Will 2019 be the first time with no player from Great Britain?

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So with today's announcement of Shaw being chosen for 2019, the run continues -- never a Team Europe without at least one player from Great Britain.

As it was highly expected no surprise with Jason Shaw being picked as the first wildcard. With the second one there may be the slightest intrigue...but so as it was announced that the wildcards are expected to be announced during a week before International Open starts I guess it will the 18th appearence of "Kaiser" in the team. If so he will be the leader in this criteria.
Does Fedor Gorst have any chances to make the youngest team ever or rationale choice of Ralf who is 5 points ahead in the combined ranking is the better choice for this team?
It's a pity that illness and a miss of one of the eurotours may cost Fedor the spot in the team. To be honest after Fedor won 9-ball title at EPC beating J.Filler and team Russia has the best result (medals) in overall standing in that EPC the chances to see Fedor or Ruslan at the MC were fairly good. Anyway it was amazing year for F.Gorst and I'm pretty sure he'll do his best to make the team in a nearest future.
If it is some luck which may decide who makes the team the captain may just toss the coin).

It looks like Marcus Chamat had hard time choosing between Ralf and Fedor so decided to pick the third contender after them in combined ranking.
Meanwhile F.Gorst is already in the last 6 of Predator Steinway Classic and will play T. Hohmann in WQ for his place in the final. So already one more good event for him...
Well during the future MC I'll be very interested to watch some rematches between certain players and surely N.Feijen vs T.Stayer is one of them.

I am glad for Niels. I also think Fedor is a victim of the youthful makeup of the team because I am sure Marcus wanted a senior leader.