SJM Slant on the 2018 Mosconi Cup

sjm said:

I just got back from the Alexandra Palace and, yes, i’m plenty excited after a great win. I’ve got a few more days in London and won’t post my thoughts on the cup until I get back to New York, but I took some notes at the event and will share my views on this wonderful victory soon, just in case the buzz hasn’t died down by next week, LOL.

Sat next to Pat Fleming tonight, and we agreed that Woodward vs Ouschan in Match 16 was the greatest Mosconi Cup match we’d ever seen, and yes, Pat and I have seen more than a few Mosconi matches.

Ok, will catch up soon.

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I saw you a few times on the stream, Stu. Can't wait to hear your breakdown and man-on-the-street reporting.
The vibe must have been electric. Truly an inspirational 4 days.

sjm said:

I just got back from the Alexandra Palace and, yes, i’m plenty excited after a great win. I’ve got a few more days in London and won’t post my thoughts on the cup until I get back to New York, but I took some notes at the event and will share my views on this wonderful victory soon, just in case the buzz hasn’t died down by next week, LOL.

Sat next to Pat Fleming tonight, and we agreed that Woodward vs Ouschan in Match 16 was the greatest Mosconi Cup match we’d ever seen, and yes, Pat and I have seen more than a few Mosconi matches.

Ok, will catch up soon.

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What about Mark Gray vs. John Schmidt? Break and run every single rack.

sjm said:

I just got back from the Alexandra Palace and, yes, i’m plenty excited after a great win. I’ve got a few more days in London and won’t post my thoughts on the cup until I get back to New York, but I took some notes at the event and will share my views on this wonderful victory soon, just in case the buzz hasn’t died down by next week, LOL.

Sat next to Pat Fleming tonight, and we agreed that Woodward vs Ouschan in Match 16 was the greatest Mosconi Cup match we’d ever seen, and yes, Pat and I have seen more than a few Mosconi matches.

Ok, will catch up soon.

Click to expand...

Hearing SJM's perspective of the event is second only to watching the cup itself. I will be looking forward to it

Looking forward to hearing all the nitty-gritty details. Yay!

I was happy to see you in the audience Stu and look forward to your report! I agree completely regarding this match win by Skyler. Albin never missed a ball that he shot at... and was still beaten. Has to be the biggest single game jump/runout win of Sky’s life!

sjm said:

I just got back from the Alexandra Palace and, yes, i’m plenty excited after a great win. I’ve got a few more days in London and won’t post my thoughts on the cup until I get back to New York, but I took some notes at the event and will share my views on this wonderful victory soon, just in case the buzz hasn’t died down by next week, LOL.

Sat next to Pat Fleming tonight, and we agreed that Woodward vs Ouschan in Match 16 was the greatest Mosconi Cup match we’d ever seen, and yes, Pat and I have seen more than a few Mosconi matches.

Ok, will catch up soon.

Click to expand...

really looking forward to your full report, Stu.

Safe travels.

best,
brian kc

Cuebuddy said:

Hearing SJM's perspective of the event is second only to watching the cup itself. I will be looking forward to it

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Agreed :thumbup:

Had Woodward lost that match, 10-10 was a huge possibility .
That jump shot was the shot of the event.

Be interesting to hear how our players who cant "conceptualize" or execute shots efficiently and only one of whom would make the top 10 of the Euro Tour could beat these superior players with superior conceptualization and execution caapability.

Nostroke said:

Be interesting to hear how our players who cant "conceptualize" or execute shots efficiently and only one of whom would make the top 10 of the Euro Tour could beat these superior players with superior conceptualization and execution caapability.

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1) Styer was a great pick and played well
2) SVB actually turned up
3) Europe in general were below par
4) Kazakis was awful

If any one of the above hadn't occurred Europe would have won, however they all did and USA played better, fully deserving the win. That doesn't, however mean that all the issues people called out previously were invalid. The Europeans (in general) had (and continue to have) better fundamentals, which in recent times has worked out better for them. However with a bit of confidence in the US players, who knows what can now happen...if SVB for example plays closer to his singles form then future cups could be a lot closer (the perfect scenario is of course that the home team is always a small favourite and it goes all the way to the end of the 4th day every year, pretty much like this year).

Oh and the actual answer to your question is probably the coach...given that he was unbeaten as European coach and has turned around a side barely able to register a point into champions suggests he has had a huge influence!

vjmehra said:

1) Styer was a great pick and played well
2) SVB actually turned up
3) Europe in general were below par
4) Kazakis was awful

If any one of the above hadn't occurred Europe would have won, however they all did

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This is PURE SPECULATION and NONSENSE!

Not every outcome or future action is predicated on a previous event.

What if the Americans had broke and ran EVERY rack in every match?

What if all the Europeans had played a safe on EVERY shot until finally the Americans succumbed and fell asleep, at which point the Europeans raked in all the balls and proclaimed to be the winners?

What if Willie Mosconi reappeared from the grave and jumped up and said, "this ain't 14.1 and proceeded to run 14,000 balls in front of the crowd and then jumped up in the middle of the table and screamed out, "I'm the GREATEST OF ALL TIME"?

There are too many "what ifs". We can "what if" forever and nobody knows truly what would have happened.

We know the outcome, so that is what stands.

sjm said:

Still, even if it had been perfect, I still would not have given it the nod. As we so often discuss here on the forum, the size of the moment is a key figure in placing a match in historical perspective. With the US leading 9-6, Chamat predictably opened Friday’s play with Ouschan, who had been his best player through the first three days by a lot. Ouschan played superbly, breaking and running his first four times. At double hill, his kick safe was a thing of beauty and it really put Skyler to the test. Everyone there reckoned that Ouschan had just sealed the match and the Europeans were going crazy. With Shaw on deck, they all sensed things would sit at 9-8 very soon. Skyler’s jump and subsequent runout pulled the rug out from Ouschan and Team Europe at an absolutely.critical juncture of the Mosconi.

With wins in singles over Shaw and Ouschan, Woodward was the one who took the air out of Team Europe and the Ouschan match offered the most electrifying moment for Team USA in nine years.

Schmidt vs Gray on 12/1/14, the third match of that Mosconi Cup, was great, but Woodward vs Ouschan was better, chiefly because of the size of the moment.

Skyler was the story of this Mosconi Cup for sure. What a magnificent performance!

From my vantage point, this was practically a knockout punch delivered at a most critical moment. I’ll never forget it. Neither will Skyler.

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Absolutely agreed...those two points achieved by Skyler were the key and most valuable for team USA victory at the end. This year's Mosconi cup was remarkable and may be the best I've seen in many ways. Finally it was a real battle with intrugue and such atmosphere, emotions, pressure etc. till the very end...all that makes it a great show for the audience. This was really a historical moment and all that happened is just great for the game and its future. There is so much to say... I told just before the MC start after USA team won their warm-up match that american fans should have more belief in their team because everybody on the team together with Johan and Jeremy did a great job. So this victory of team USA is absolutely deserved and I was really happy for them. It was a great fight and show which finally I was able to watch in great quality free on FB Mosconi cup page unlike the previous years when it was more complicated to find good possibility to watch it on SKY sport. So also big thanks to Matchroom for all they're doing for the game.

HawaiianEye said:

This is PURE SPECULATION and NONSENSE!
Not every outcome or future action is predicated on a previous event.
What if the Americans had broke and ran EVERY rack in every match?
What if all the Europeans had played a safe on EVERY shot until finally the Americans succumbed and fell asleep, at which point the Europeans raked in all the balls and proclaimed to be the winners?
What if Willie Mosconi reappeared from the grave and jumped up and said, "this ain't 14.1 and proceeded to run 14,000 balls in front of the crowd and then jumped up in the middle of the table and screamed out, "I'm the GREATEST OF ALL TIME"?
There are too many "what ifs". We can "what if" forever and nobody knows truly what would have happened.
We know the outcome, so that is what stands.

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Stop with the being so confounded realistic........don't you know this is fantasyland?
:wink::wink:

Here's something I haven't heard anyone else mention, remember when Shane almost wasn't going to be on the team because he wouldn't do that training camp? Who knows what would have happened then, huh?

HawaiianEye said:

This is PURE SPECULATION and NONSENSE!

Not every outcome or future action is predicated on a previous event.

What if the Americans had broke and ran EVERY rack in every match?

What if all the Europeans had played a safe on EVERY shot until finally the Americans succumbed and fell asleep, at which point the Europeans raked in all the balls and proclaimed to be the winners?

What if Willie Mosconi reappeared from the grave and jumped up and said, "this ain't 14.1 and proceeded to run 14,000 balls in front of the crowd and then jumped up in the middle of the table and screamed out, "I'm the GREATEST OF ALL TIME"?

There are too many "what ifs". We can "what if" forever and nobody knows truly what would have happened.

We know the outcome, so that is what stands.

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A HUGE PROPS ON THIS POST!!!!!

Some people just can't:

Stand up

Shake your hand


And acknowledge that you out played them without making excuses....


I expect the excuses at my local room and most other rooms but not from the arena they stand in. It's just not acceptable IMO....

Stu, I had no idea you were there. You should have introduced yourself! Your analysis is spot on as usual and looking forward to your full report. I agree 100% that the Woodward/Ouschan match on Day 4 was everything the MC is about. This team, in some ways, have saved the event. I could feel the 'team' everytime I was around them; at the USA / England match and for all four days at the event itself. Those guys would have walked in front of a bus for each other.

JoeyInCali said:

Had Woodward lost that match, 10-10 was a huge possibility .
That jump shot was the shot of the event.

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Yeah, the 3 consecutive losses after that great match by Woodward were hard to watch. All 3 US players made key mistakes / missed shots in the middle of those matches when they were still ahead or tied, and they all proved to be costly mistakes that turned the momentum in all those matches. I was starting to feel sick, so I had to stop watching and go do something. I tuned it back in just as Shane was shooting the combination to win - what a gutsy shot to play in that situation!

Not sure what I thought of the US players all jumping up on the table to celebrate? Since when has that become the thing to do? I'm kind of thinking it was a direct jab mainly at Jason Shaw, who did that after winning his US Open last year. Throughout this Mosconi Cup, Shaw's behavior was bordering on disrespectful to his opponents, although he was far more reserved in his match on Friday, likely only because his team was then trailing 10-6.

ChrisinNC said:

Yeah, the 3 consecutive losses after that great match by Woodward were hard to watch. All 3 US players made key mistakes / missed shots in the middle of those matches when they were still ahead or tied, and they all proved to be costly mistakes that turned the momentum in all those matches. I was starting to feel sick, so I had to stop watching and go do something. I tuned it back in just as Shane was shooting the combination to win - what a gutsy shot to play in that situation!

Not sure what I thought of the US players all jumping up on the table to celebrate? Since when has that become the thing to do? I'm kind of thinking it was a direct jab mainly at Jason Shaw, who did that after winning his US Open last year. Throughout this Mosconi Cup, Shaw's behavior was bordering on disrespectful to his opponents, although he was far more reserved in his match on Friday, likely only because his team was then trailing 10-6.

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The last day was a nail-biter! Man, I thought to myelf, please, please let us win after coming this far. And it was very fitting that it was Shane to sealed the deal.:lovies:

There was a lot of smack talk in the chat rooms about Jayson's behavior. As usual, the keyboard cowboys went out of their way to insult his looks, calling him names, sometimes vulgar, and insulting the man's wife, knowing she was in the chat. It went too far, as far as I am concerned. They even insulted Klenti Kaci's looks, and, I mean, come on. This kid is very easy on the eyes for the ladies.

Love him or hate him, Jayson Shaw is a major attraction. I liked it when he was pumping up the audience, even though he was on the other side of who I was rooting for. I enjoyed his team spirit and hearing the roar of the audience each time he raised his arms. This is the Mosconi Cup and exactly what it is so cool about it.

Of course, the pool purists seem to want to watch pool in silence, much like the ambience of a snooker audience, where you can hear a pin drop. That might be okay for snooker, but not for the Mosconi Cup. The Mosconi Cup is all about the audience involvement, IMO.

Back to Jayson, when players like him show any sort of bravado, some folk, especially men, don't like it and want to slam him down at every turn. They don't like to see a man with such power in his personality and on a field of tournament blue. It reminds me of my brother who doesn't like to watch Tom Cruise movies, calling him a "pretty boy." Well, I like Tom Cruise and enjoy his movies, but I think my brother, in some strange way, is jealous of Tom Cruise. I can say that because my brother doesn't read this forum. :grin-square:

I guess the Mosconi Cup is now on my bucket list. Vegas or bust in 2019.