The US team got over there early and practiced on similar equipment. Not exact same set-up but close. The Euro's did same thing. I agree that's some more fake news excuse bs.
Mosconi Cup 2025, Dec. 3-6, Alexandra Palace, London
- Thread starter Bob Jewett
- Start date
where you live? what tourn was that? i've known spanky since he was about 14, took him on his first out of town trip back in '90.
tend to agree here. Pros play 99.99% of their pool playing heads up tournament and/or gambling. Then once a yr the MC comes along and everyone just expects business as usual. Well folks team play is a one-off deal for them and a totally different mindset. So they don't play well, oh well. Too many panties get wadded up over this deal.
Mika grew up playing Kaisa in Finland, where the pockets are so tight that they barely accept a single ball. It's no accident that he became such a world class shotmaker.
This is what a Kaisa table looks like. Check out the size of those pockets:
Tournament was in Wichita, I live close enough to follow the Facebook page of the pool room that hosted it. Jamie (sp?) Cockrum won it and played quite well from what I saw.
This was no disrespect to Greg, who might be one of the most dedicated players in the country in his own right...
I completely agree with your statement regarding team vs individual play.
The pressure is completely different and SVB is living proof of that.
He’s much better now than when he played years ago in Mosconi Cup events.
A lot of chatter here about what's wrong with Team USA and what we need to do to fix it. I'm sorry but none of the above is the answer. There is a reason why Shane became Shane and not just another American player. He actually grew up playing on bar boxes but made the transition to big tables by devoting himself to the game and whatever it took to be the player he is. It did not happen by accident. Shane put in the twelve hour days for years to get where he is. There is no short cut to pool stardom. It takes work and lots of it!
I've personally witnessed the practice regime of some great players who stayed at my home for periods of time. For years I had a really tough Diamond Pro table and players like Dennis, Carlo and Shane would spend day and night on that table until they had it mastered, or close. I'd wake up in the morning to the sound of pool balls and go to sleep at night to the same sounds. I saw real dedication by guys who wanted to be the best.
It makes me think the current crop of U.S. players does not do anything like this. Maybe they go to the poolroom every day (or on their home table) and hit balls for a couple of hours and hang around and smooze with their friends there. I don't think they take the game as seriously as the aspiring Euro and Asian pros. To them (Euro and Asian) they see a way to make a good living if they can win, so they make the necessary sacrifices to get there.
P.S. Attendance looked rather sparse in there. Maybe even the Euros have begun to lose interest in this annual bloodletting.
I've personally witnessed the practice regime of some great players who stayed at my home for periods of time. For years I had a really tough Diamond Pro table and players like Dennis, Carlo and Shane would spend day and night on that table until they had it mastered, or close. I'd wake up in the morning to the sound of pool balls and go to sleep at night to the same sounds. I saw real dedication by guys who wanted to be the best.
It makes me think the current crop of U.S. players does not do anything like this. Maybe they go to the poolroom every day (or on their home table) and hit balls for a couple of hours and hang around and smooze with their friends there. I don't think they take the game as seriously as the aspiring Euro and Asian pros. To them (Euro and Asian) they see a way to make a good living if they can win, so they make the necessary sacrifices to get there.
P.S. Attendance looked rather sparse in there. Maybe even the Euros have begun to lose interest in this annual bloodletting.
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What a beautiful table. I am friendly with a waitress that’s from Finland. Her sister is in the military there and has a Belgian Malinois as her partner. It’s a wild beast when it’s let loose according to Eva!
Spoken with her at length about Finland. All Finlanders get free education as long as they like. They all have access to hunt and fish year round no permits or licenses required. Men and women all receive the same pay scale, no disparity based on gender.
If it weren’t so cold it might be paradise!!!
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And Shane only did that because of his disability.
It's not that we need a few more guys to do this and we are all set, we need a culture where it's really freaking cool and aspirational to be one of the best players in the world. You need hundreds of guys spending 10 hours a day working on their game for at least a few years to see if they can break through, then maybe a few will
His lack of practice really showed up today. He missed several routine shots. Even in the game he won he missed the seven ball so badly that it banked in up table.
I really didn't think the US could get off to a worse start in the Mosconi, but the players somehow managed it. Worst start ever. The mistakes piled up early and often.
Forget the current or future US talent pool. The US didn’t lose today because of lack of talent. They lost mainly because of a slew of uncharacteristic mistakes that these same players seldom make in regular pool competition.
Not enough prep, or not the best prep? Maybe. Nerves? Certainly. Strategic errors and lack of tactical acumen? Yup. Lack of focus? That, too.
There is no reason a team with two of the best players in the world should lose like this, even if they are the clear underdogs.
It all started in the team game. Tyler blew easy position on the 5 ball after an Alcaide miss. Cost him the game. Then Billy missed a routine 9 he should make 99% of the time. Another avoidable loss. Then Gorst scratches on the break.
After the 5-2 team loss, the US players had to be thinking, not this again. You could see it in their faces.
Gorst and SVB then jump to a 2-0 lead over Filler and Alcaide, but some safety battle losses, another break scratch and subpar position play cost them that match. Now Team USA is down 2-0 and the nerves were really on fire.
Woodward should never be captain again (NorJeremy Jones). Picking himself to play the first singles match was just plain stupid. It should have been SVB or Gorst.
It was also a mistake to pair Gorst and SVB, especially in the first doubles. Big blow to the US morale if they lose. Plus it left Tyler and Billy to their own devices.
Woodward, for his part, has lost any right to ham it up - if he ever had it. He was not focused vs Shaw. He needs to just shut up and play.
Sky is very talented. He played arguably his best match ever in a hill-hill loss to Yapp at the International last week. That’s who he needs to be. Not this weird Mosconi persona.
Tyler made a semis this year at a MR major. Thorpe got to the quarters of a stacked Peri Open. Neither of those guys showed up today. I have never seen Styer play worse.
Once again, the US players tried some tough shots when safety play was the better option. The long thin cut Styer and Thorpe tried were good examples.
They also didn’t break well.
This team needs a real coach. MR has to fix this pronto.
There’s no doubt Europe has more talent and should be favored every Mosconi. But Team USA is making them look much better than they are because of self inflicted mistakes.
Now let’s see if anyone has any fight left.
Forget the current or future US talent pool. The US didn’t lose today because of lack of talent. They lost mainly because of a slew of uncharacteristic mistakes that these same players seldom make in regular pool competition.
Not enough prep, or not the best prep? Maybe. Nerves? Certainly. Strategic errors and lack of tactical acumen? Yup. Lack of focus? That, too.
There is no reason a team with two of the best players in the world should lose like this, even if they are the clear underdogs.
It all started in the team game. Tyler blew easy position on the 5 ball after an Alcaide miss. Cost him the game. Then Billy missed a routine 9 he should make 99% of the time. Another avoidable loss. Then Gorst scratches on the break.
After the 5-2 team loss, the US players had to be thinking, not this again. You could see it in their faces.
Gorst and SVB then jump to a 2-0 lead over Filler and Alcaide, but some safety battle losses, another break scratch and subpar position play cost them that match. Now Team USA is down 2-0 and the nerves were really on fire.
Woodward should never be captain again (NorJeremy Jones). Picking himself to play the first singles match was just plain stupid. It should have been SVB or Gorst.
It was also a mistake to pair Gorst and SVB, especially in the first doubles. Big blow to the US morale if they lose. Plus it left Tyler and Billy to their own devices.
Woodward, for his part, has lost any right to ham it up - if he ever had it. He was not focused vs Shaw. He needs to just shut up and play.
Sky is very talented. He played arguably his best match ever in a hill-hill loss to Yapp at the International last week. That’s who he needs to be. Not this weird Mosconi persona.
Tyler made a semis this year at a MR major. Thorpe got to the quarters of a stacked Peri Open. Neither of those guys showed up today. I have never seen Styer play worse.
Once again, the US players tried some tough shots when safety play was the better option. The long thin cut Styer and Thorpe tried were good examples.
They also didn’t break well.
This team needs a real coach. MR has to fix this pronto.
There’s no doubt Europe has more talent and should be favored every Mosconi. But Team USA is making them look much better than they are because of self inflicted mistakes.
Now let’s see if anyone has any fight left.
Gorst has done this exact thing.
SVB has done this exact thing minus the coach.
Tyler has taken a very professional approach to the game but he's just not world class.
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Below the line are guys who have probably figured out the juice isn't worth the squeeze. Why should they be held to a different standard than most of us on AZ? I mean we all had to figure out the same thing at some point, either with pool or just generally in life. If Sky can have fun playing pool, have a family, and support them, what more is there really for him to gain by investing MORE time in this sport at his age? There's not millions of dollars sitting out there just waiting for any of these guys, except for MAYBE a small handful of them if that.
That's not really what's holding someone like Oscar back anyway. What holds him back is his ability to do basic math. For a player of his caliber, passion doesn't pay the bills. He's actually played his cards in life just about perfectly if you ask me.
A 800 Fargo Rated player CAN NOT make a living playing on the WNT, but a guy can play at a 800 level for maybe 40 years if they maintain their health. This makes this game nearly impossible to profit at. Maybe it's the U.S. players that are actually the smart ones.
After reading some of the above posts I am more and more convinced that those Pocket Reducers are one of, it not the best, training aids out there.
On a bright note, the 2026 World Cup is coming to the United States, with Miami as one of the host cities, something to actually look forward to.
But when it comes to pool here in the U.S., it’s getting harder, at least for me, to stay excited. The sport is shrinking, the payouts aren’t growing, and our pool of true pro-caliber American players keeps getting smaller. What makes it worse is the nonstop politics and mudslinging between players. It takes the spotlight off the game I have enjoyed over the years.
This year, though, something feels off. And it’s not because Team USA got whitewashed on Day 1. Hey, that’s sports, and it happens. What’s bothering me is harder to put a finger on. The atmosphere doesn’t feel the same, the spark isn’t quite there, and it’s like the soul of the event is drifting somewhere else. I love this game, but something just isn’t right.
But when it comes to pool here in the U.S., it’s getting harder, at least for me, to stay excited. The sport is shrinking, the payouts aren’t growing, and our pool of true pro-caliber American players keeps getting smaller. What makes it worse is the nonstop politics and mudslinging between players. It takes the spotlight off the game I have enjoyed over the years.
This year, though, something feels off. And it’s not because Team USA got whitewashed on Day 1. Hey, that’s sports, and it happens. What’s bothering me is harder to put a finger on. The atmosphere doesn’t feel the same, the spark isn’t quite there, and it’s like the soul of the event is drifting somewhere else. I love this game, but something just isn’t right.
