Could This Debacle Kill the Mosconi Cup

dardusm said:
Well for a long time when the series for started, USA dominated. This Cup was the largest attended event live in it's history, so I doubt it's going anywhere. It might need some tweaking such as expanding the field of players to include Canada.
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I think when US kicked butt, the European side took it as a fun break from their usual tournaments and did not really care if they won or not. I've seen some of the early videos and the European guys are drinking and smoking, joking around, and the US is all "whoooot, we are winning!"

And the rest of the world had no idea how to play US pool games even if they could pocket balls, watching some of the early Chinese and Japanese entries in US tournaments, especially the women, was pretty sad, they'd miss like 2-3 times a rack, be out of position the same amount.
 
King T said:
I understand your position and I don't disagree completely but..., Do we all believe that we cant win a race to 5!!!!! This is not the insane races to 100 that everybody on this form thinks you have win to prove your the best. Its not even a Professional level race to 9 or 11, its a amateurish race to 5!!! Anybody can win a race to 5 against anybody, right? That's whats always stated, that the short race favors the weaker player..., so are the Europeans the weaker players or is the short race argument BS?
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Well it's not accurate to say that a short race favours the weaker player. The stronger player is always the favourite, even in a race to 1. A short race reduces the advantage held by the stronger player, but he is still the favourite, no matter how long or short the race.

With the singular exception of Shane (and this is debatable because his mosconi cup record is terrible), every Euro player is the favourite in any race, any format, against any USA player. IMHO.

And there are other factors as well obviously. Someone pointed out that the European players have more team-format and scotch-doubles experience than American players do. And also that the fundamentals of the Euro players are much, much better than the Americans, and solid fundamentals are what carry you through high pressure situations.
 
Well, it looks like this USA team may have actually killed it for any future USA teams.
Next year in Vegas Europe vs Asia
 
Only Shane could PERHAPS get a game for Europe. None of the rest of the Americans could. Dechaine in the last match gets a huge fluke then Jayson goes in off the break. He has to draw back 18 inches and his technique under pressure will not allow him to do that.

That's the truth, for whatever reason the American players are just not good enough. They currently get $10k pa for not being very good. That has to change.
 
8BallWonderland said:
Well, it looks like this USA team may have actually killed it for any future USA teams.
Next year in Vegas Europe vs Asia
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If you just heard Barry Hearn say next year they will have to do something else because the Americans just can't give the Europeans any competition you seem to be right.
 
Long as they fill venues and keep the event sponsors happy I don't see why Matchroom would end a succesful promotion. It really sucks that America has become the Washington Generals but they will keep cashing the checks.

I know Matchroom wants a competitive event simply because all sports is about drama. Hard to have drama when its Bambi vs Godzilla. It costs a whole lot of money to do the Cup in Vegas. I could see them just doing the event in England before they scrap the whole thing.
 
8BallWonderland said:
Well, it looks like this USA team may have actually killed it for any future USA teams.
Next year in Vegas Europe vs Asia
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If turned it off after Shaw won. Did they say Europe vs Asia?

It would make sense. Pool is on the rise in Asia. Better organization there. Some sponsors with money to spend.
 
JCIN said:
If turned it off after Shaw won. Did they say Europe vs Asia?

It would make sense. Pool is on the rise in Asia. Better organization there. Some sponsors with money to spend.
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Yes Barry said he's been thinking about it the last 2 days and he's taking one player from Korea, Taiwan etc
Then they will play Europe
And later when the female interviewer asked Jim Wych what the USA need to do next year, he said we need to change things up and get the best from Asia to play Europe.
But they still said the dates and that it will be at the Tropicana in Las Vegas.
 
Luke Riches just replied on my facebook page. There will be another USA vs Europe Mosconi Cup next year in Vegas December 4-7. Matchroom is also going to do The Reyes Cup Europe vs Asia. No date or venue on that.
 
My Solution...

Anyone remember amateur wrestling in the 70's and 80's? The Americans were getting mauled by the Soviets (and Europeans) in just about every major international competition. Our guys were trying to be world class wrestlers while holding down part time and often times full time jobs. It wasn't until John duPont came along in the late '80's and decided that he was tired of seeing our guys get killed (pun intended) by the Soviets, who were State sponsored, compensated well, and didn't have to focus on anything but training and wrestling.

DuPont built Foxcatcher farms and brought young talent in, paid them, gave them a place to live, and basically made it so they could dedicate 24/7 to training. The US Wrestling program did a complete 180 and the medals started coming....

What if there were a sponsor (dreaming, I know) who would bring in our team in to a hotel, say in September, and pay them a salary/stipend for three months (equal to the winners share of any major tournament they would normally play in during the time period). During this time, they would have access to the best equipment, sports psycholgists to work on their visualization and mental game, massage therapists, coaches, anything they could possibly need...all while a revolving door of the best american players came through as playing/training partners.

Three months with nothing to do but train and prepare for the Cup 24/7. Could the american team be successful with those conditions? If I ever win the PowerBall, we WILL find out:)
 
It doesn't seem possible that the USA will ever be favored going forward. The only way I see this being a more competitive event, where its truly a coin toss on who will win, is for Matchroom to open the competition up to Europe vs North America. That way we could draw from Canada and maybe Mexico too. If they did that, I wonder if Pagulayan would be considered a Canuck?

We might just be in a situation where we are becoming the Washington Generals against the Harlem Globetrotters. It worked for 40+ years for them and the Generals lost 2,495 games in a row but the audiences loved it. At the end of the day, the USA team is still getting paid very well for this event and the USA pool fans love the event even if we are getting beat.
 
JCIN said:
Long as they fill venues and keep the event sponsors happy I don't see why Matchroom would end a succesful promotion. It really sucks that America has become the Washington Generals but they will keep cashing the checks.

I know Matchroom wants a competitive event simply because all sports is about drama. Hard to have drama when its Bambi vs Godzilla. It costs a whole lot of money to do the Cup in Vegas. I could see them just doing the event in England before they scrap the whole thing.
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just saw you saw where this was going before me lol. I get second place just like the USA.
 
JCIN said:
Luke Riches just replied on my facebook page. There will be another USA vs Europe Mosconi Cup next year in Vegas December 4-7. Matchroom is also going to do The Reyes Cup Europe vs Asia. No date or venue on that.
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That's a shame. USA should play Asia for the right to face Europe as holders. Obviously cash is king and Matchroom may well be able to fill two venues a year.
 
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