You're welcome to your opinion and I agree with some of it. It could be that some members of the team simply don't have the funding to have made the trip. Do you know for fact the euros weren't sponsored?
I went over the pragmatic reasons for not going to the event in the first post. The reality is the entire of professionals from Europe saw the value in going to the event beyond simply the monetary reasons and they went and they got the international exposure and the experience and they will be stronger players because of it.
Anyone has the choice to be pragmatic and not compete at the highest level in pool. But the whole idea of a bunch of USA players who do not commit to pool 100% like the Euros do beating that team at the Mosconi Cup is nothing more then a bunch of lip service and hype. They have no chance because they do not treat the sport like the professional competition it truly is and how a true professional really needs to play it to be at the elite level.
It does not matter how many trips to visit sick kids in the hospital they do or how many dinners they eat as a team during the event or how well they have honed their high fiving skills. It is a team of USA players who largely do not commit to professional elite pool anywhere near to the same level as their European counterparts.
That is why they have no chance and all of the stuff Mark Wilson and the "team" have been doing does not make up for the fact that the USA Mosconi Cup team members are simply not as committed to playing professional pool as the Euro team members are.
If Mark Wilson wanted to get a group together to actually compete against the Euros THE most important question he should have asked the prospective players is "Are you committed to playing a full season of full time professional pool at the highest level and going to all of the major events both in the USA and abroad this year to hone your skills before the Mosconi Cup?" Clearly he has people on the team that had absolutely no plan to truly focus on professional pool to that degree.