Do you think they got their Fargo ratings by playing in their basement alone?
They got them from playing in events under pressure.
Jason
How many countries could beat USA at pool
- Thread starter Mcdermott1981
- Start date
Do you think they got their Fargo ratings by playing in their basement alone?
They got them from playing in events under pressure.
Jason
The demise of USA pool has been well discussed here and elsewhere but I maintain the MAIN issue is the 7ft bar table. Nobody gets to be world class playing exclusively on a bar table and in many locations that's all there is. It's not everything but it's a lot of the thing that keeps the USA a second class country with respect to pool.
In those tournaments, do they have extremely unruly fans throwing pacifiers and making rude comments about a player's wife? Let alone the high-decibel roar whenever a US player misses or one of the European players sinks a winning ball.
I didn't think so.
Maniac (you have your opinions, I'll have mine)
Besides what I said in my previous post...if our (USA) Fargo Ratings are as comparably high, why then ARE we getting the sh*t beat out of us every year? According to your logic, the Fargo ratings SHOULD have them playing fairly evenly.
Maniac
Mike? I got an idea. Can you pls provide FR numbers for Mosconi Cup 2017 how US players performed against Euro players? And maybe the same for 2016/2015? I believe we will see interesting numbers there..
England is mentioned by OP, Spain - i am not sure about 5 guys but i agree about top3 being super strong. As for Finland - Immonen and Makkonen are competitive with US top players, Siekkinen and Laaksonen are strong but even I can beat them,i dont think they would be ready for the challenge of US team. And I dont remember any other top finnish player atm,throw some names in to refresh my memory
You must be really strong shooter!
Laaksonen visited U.S early this year and dominated Mezz Tour somewhere around California. He won normally all matches 11-1 to 11-3. I believe he won all 3 or 4 tour stops he played. Only Vilmos Foldes beat him once or came close. Cannot remember. We also have guy who is not playing anymore so seriously but still ran 3x in row 100 and out on 14.1 champs. Also one young gun is so strong(ran 12 pack on 9-ball) but he is still not really known outside from Finland. I played against him for money and played strong but he still destroyed me. We played 7 hours 10-ball race to 6 sets(while both getting drunk too). Winner breaks. Magic rack on good Diamonds. I counted next day how he beat me and on average he ran out 3-3,5 racks per set whole night.. I was also winning some sets with two innings but that was not good enough...
I don´t want say names here because he go get some money from U.S time to time .:wink:.
Also Jani Uski really strong player. Reigning European 8-ball champ. He played almost whole event without missing a ball.
I totally forgot about Jani,very strong player,yet i am not convinced if he is on par with top US players. And i have heard about that young killer,hopefully he will shine in the future
As for myself...i can be pain in the a55 for anyone on a good day 
I totally forgot about Jani,very strong player,yet i am not convinced if he is on par with top US players. And i have heard about that young killer,hopefully he will shine in the future
Ok, to the extent "pain in the a55" means that you really got someones attention, I will point out that our Marek went
8 to 9 against Eklenti Kaci April 2018 in Austria
8 to 9 against Ralf Souquet October 2017 also in Austria
8 to 9 against Roman Hybler August 2017 in Netherlands
and he mentions Jani here: He beat Jani 9 to 4 October 2017 in Austria
--just sayin....
We are your memory ;-) Yes very impressive run for Laaksonen
Attachments
:thumbup:
Yeah i like to sneak up upon unsuspecting pros :thumbup:
I have the utmost respect for Alain, but in either gambling or a Mosconi format, Alain would be trounced by all players from Team USA.
Yup..that kind of pain in the a55:thumbup: Funny how differently those matches went. While with Ralf it was just a matter of hanging there,Ralf was always 1-2 games ahead but i kept fighting and from 6:8 i climbed to the double hill with my break. After the break i had looong straight in along the rail with cb near the foot rail and if i made it then 3-9 combo was waiting for me. At 11:30pm after 150mins of battle with Ralf and 4 more matches before that day i was really tired and didnt make it. Ralf ran out and by that victory he qualified for Mosconi Cup 2017. Against Eklent I was the one who was ahead,Eklent had real trouble with my safeties
But when the crunch time came he made some really tough shots under pressure. And he got lucky at the end,i had a break at 8:7 and decided to go for 9 on the snap (break euro players used at MC 4 years back). And i almost made it,9 went straight for the side pocket but got grazed by other ball and went 2 cm near the pocket. At double hill Eklent almost scratched twice but got away with it:thumbup: and the match against Roman..thats a painful memory for me...i played great and i got to the hill first...8:2...then i messed up big time,my nerves got better of me,i wasted 3 easy opportunities to close the deal and Roman started to play flawless when he saw i struggled. I lost that match 8:9,it was painful but very useful experience,because even though i lost i proved to myself i can win against anyone..
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You completely forgot the psychological part of the equation. When a US team loses 8 times in a row in MC this is definitely a huge factor. They lose trust in themselves right from the start.
If they met single countries there would be a completely new set of cards dealt. The negative psychological factor just would not be there.
Just take a look at Shane and you will know what I mean. SVB always performed quite a bit worse on the MC than in his other average tournaments. It would be interesting what his FargoRate would have been in MC alone. I would think it is considerably lower.
If they met single countries there would be a completely new set of cards dealt. The negative psychological factor just would not be there.
Just take a look at Shane and you will know what I mean. SVB always performed quite a bit worse on the MC than in his other average tournaments. It would be interesting what his FargoRate would have been in MC alone. I would think it is considerably lower.
Fargo gets those numbers from wins, wins come from those "other factors" also. Fargo does not rate how well players can run out with ball in hand in their house, it rates head to head competition between players.
I know what wins the Mosconi Cup, jump cues and short races. I watched videos that is a race to 9 that had the commentators say that is too short of a race for pros, never mind a race to 5.
Play 10 ball, called shot, no jump cues, race to 7, then I think the results will change a bit.
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Howdy All;
Just my thoughts here, JB Cases mentioned the "Club" aspect back on page 2 and how most
of the other countries regard their pool as an athletic endeavor, (diet and training), about
the closest thing we have in a broad spectrum are the leagues APA, BCA, etc. Nice if
you have the population and players to support those things. I choose to live rural and
pay the price of not having much if anything available except my VFW tourneys.
What I think hasn't been addressed very much, if at all, is the pervasive attitude that it's
all just a big Hustle, a One on One event rather then a Team event. American pool players
have grown up with the dream of Fast Eddie Felson (them), v Fats (everyone else), so
deeply embedded that they don't know how to work together as a cohesive unit. Until
they do they will look as bad as they have the past few years.
I was watching the POV stream from Freezer's 2 nights ago and after a match Robo
and Alex got together to work on a shot Alex had difficulty with during the match that
they had just played against each other. Do ya see that much between American
players or do they just pack up and exit as quickly as they can after a brief obligatory
handshake.
hank
Just my thoughts here, JB Cases mentioned the "Club" aspect back on page 2 and how most
of the other countries regard their pool as an athletic endeavor, (diet and training), about
the closest thing we have in a broad spectrum are the leagues APA, BCA, etc. Nice if
you have the population and players to support those things. I choose to live rural and
pay the price of not having much if anything available except my VFW tourneys.
What I think hasn't been addressed very much, if at all, is the pervasive attitude that it's
all just a big Hustle, a One on One event rather then a Team event. American pool players
have grown up with the dream of Fast Eddie Felson (them), v Fats (everyone else), so
deeply embedded that they don't know how to work together as a cohesive unit. Until
they do they will look as bad as they have the past few years.
I was watching the POV stream from Freezer's 2 nights ago and after a match Robo
and Alex got together to work on a shot Alex had difficulty with during the match that
they had just played against each other. Do ya see that much between American
players or do they just pack up and exit as quickly as they can after a brief obligatory
handshake.
hank
We will never truly know unless all of this is played out, all hypothetical country matches turned into actual playing formats.
We must agree to disagree.
I have seen the likes of too many USA Mosconi Cup players showing to be in a different state of mindset playing in the MC as opposed to any tournament played in America. I saw Mike Dechaine (our #2 ranked US player) in such a state of discomfort that he was sweating all over himself, not to mention dogging far too many shots. I've seen our best player, SVB, literally hang his head and give up after missing a makeable shot. I'm not even going to go into some of the Earl and Rodney antics.
Simply put, they do not hold up well under the pressure/heckling that the MC crowd throws at them. NOWHERE in other tournaments (where their Fargo rates are calculated) do they have to play under those extreme conditions. Why is that so hard to comprehend?
The Europeans (with the exception of Nick Van Den Berg) just seem to hold it together better than the Americans during the Mosconi Cup.
And....you simply cannot compare the Mosconi Cup tournament to ANY tournament held in America. Two different animals. MC is a tiger....US tournaments are kittens in comparison.
So, for eight straight years jump cues and short races are the reasons the American team has had their a$$es handed to them? Last time I checked, the USA team had jump cues and were playing short races too.
When equipment and computer statistics is how you figure things and you take the minds (coolness under pressure) and hearts (quit) out of the equation, there is a key ingredient being omitted.
I absolutely KNOW that our (USA) team has players just as physically talented as the Europeans, so you just have to know there are other variables at play during the MC competition.
Maniac
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