This match was just posted today on youtube, and is worth watching. Neither player played very good, with numerous unforced errors and scratches by both players. Two things stuck out for me. I admit I was pulling for Shane, but Shaw's actions in the last game will never ever have me pull for him again in any match he ever plays the rest of his career - what an immature and classless display on the world stage, and he did it when playing one of the game's most well respected players.
Shaw knows he should have never won this match. After Shane unexplaineably missed a straight in 8-ball - the second straight game Shane, when given ball-in-hand, missed a straight in easy shot when running out, Shaw then has a fairly easy 8-ball shot which he makes and rolls down for excellent shape on the 9, and then celebrates like's he's already won the match. He then has to compose himself and come back to the table and focus on the 9-ball shot. After pocketing the 9-ball, he totally loses it, going over into Shane's corner and yelling at someone in the crowd who I'm guessing was heckling him, before eventually making an all too quick and meaningless attempt to shake Shane's hand, and then celebrating with his teammates.
Don't know about you guys, but anytime I've won a match I know I didn't deserve to win, against a player who has pitifully choked more than once when running out to win the match, I really feel it's disrespectful and out of place to celebrate. Just shake your opponent's hand, feel bad for them, and know that you got lucky.
In regards to Shane's misses - very hard to explain. In the 4-3 game, when running out, it looked like on the 5-ball, when attempting to draw it back off the side rail for the 6-ball, he may have been cheating the pocket just a hair to keep the CB from coming close to scratching in the side pocket. He's smart enough to know with such tight pockets you can't risk cheating the pocket in that situation.
The miss on the 8-ball in the hill-hill game was even more unexplainable. He had a very easy shot on the 7-ball and appeared to draw it back either too far or not quite far enough, leaving him nearly straight in on the 8-ball, knowing he had to get back up table for the 9-ball. It looked like he played it with high inside, and undercut just enough to miss it, but the mistake was made in the positioning error.
I can live with the 20 year old Filler's displaced excitement and enthusiasm during his early matches in his very first Mosconi Cup experience, but I would have expected a whole lot more class to be displayed from a veteran like Shaw, particularly under the circumstances of how he had that match handed to him by Van Boening.
Shaw knows he should have never won this match. After Shane unexplaineably missed a straight in 8-ball - the second straight game Shane, when given ball-in-hand, missed a straight in easy shot when running out, Shaw then has a fairly easy 8-ball shot which he makes and rolls down for excellent shape on the 9, and then celebrates like's he's already won the match. He then has to compose himself and come back to the table and focus on the 9-ball shot. After pocketing the 9-ball, he totally loses it, going over into Shane's corner and yelling at someone in the crowd who I'm guessing was heckling him, before eventually making an all too quick and meaningless attempt to shake Shane's hand, and then celebrating with his teammates.
Don't know about you guys, but anytime I've won a match I know I didn't deserve to win, against a player who has pitifully choked more than once when running out to win the match, I really feel it's disrespectful and out of place to celebrate. Just shake your opponent's hand, feel bad for them, and know that you got lucky.
In regards to Shane's misses - very hard to explain. In the 4-3 game, when running out, it looked like on the 5-ball, when attempting to draw it back off the side rail for the 6-ball, he may have been cheating the pocket just a hair to keep the CB from coming close to scratching in the side pocket. He's smart enough to know with such tight pockets you can't risk cheating the pocket in that situation.
The miss on the 8-ball in the hill-hill game was even more unexplainable. He had a very easy shot on the 7-ball and appeared to draw it back either too far or not quite far enough, leaving him nearly straight in on the 8-ball, knowing he had to get back up table for the 9-ball. It looked like he played it with high inside, and undercut just enough to miss it, but the mistake was made in the positioning error.
I can live with the 20 year old Filler's displaced excitement and enthusiasm during his early matches in his very first Mosconi Cup experience, but I would have expected a whole lot more class to be displayed from a veteran like Shaw, particularly under the circumstances of how he had that match handed to him by Van Boening.