Mosconi Cup 2025, Dec. 3-6, Alexandra Palace, London

Scrunge19 said:
He also has a US Open, Hanoi Open, and World Blackball champion. I personally think he’s kind of a borderline pick but those titles plus the Mosconi Cup showmanship/performances and the straight pool record some people value will end up getting him in.
Click to expand...
That World Blackball final he played flawless pool. Honestly don't think he missed a shot in the whole match. There was no shot clock, but Jayson was so confident that he was taking about 5 seconds a shot.

Loved this shot and the fact it provoked an ooh la la from the French commentators. Their player was getting destroyed, but it sounded like they still enjoyed just witnessing such great pool.
 
jay helfert said:
I see two options, neither one which is that good.

First of let's be clear about the make up of our team. We have one great player in the twilight of his career. A second player who is a Euro convert? Two more players who are journeyman pros. And a Bank Pool specialist. Kind of a patchwork team representing us.
Now let's look at the Euro side. Five high level professional pool players who make this their full time job. And they take their job seriously, working hard on their game to continuously improve. Their collective goal is to be among the best players in the world, and they are!
When you look at it realistically, you can see it's kind a mismatch isn't it.

Option A) Get a full time mental coach for the players on Team USA so at least they can have their heads on straight when it comes to playing in a high stress environment. I can attest to the fact that pool players are coachable and can be taught to play at their highest level. Even if only for one specific event.

Option B) Start all over with a completely new team. I'd like to take a group of five or six promising young players (18-23 years old) and spend a year developing them and their game to prepare themselves for the MC. We do have talent here. I've seen it. But they need some good coaching and instruction to be world class players.

I would100% guarantee that given the chance a completely new team would fare far better than what we've been seeing the last few years. They won't dog it is all I've got to say. There is a way to get past all that.

Can you imagine taking a group of college kids and beating the Russians at Ice Hockey? It could be done in Pool too!

If the powers that be would fund it (maybe to the tune of 100K) I would take on that role for one year of my life. We all know that's never going to happen though, so it is only my little pipe dream.
Click to expand...

But . . . it's not like the Miracle on Ice and it was what it was at the time but a one off. Just picking some young players and thinking some intensive coaching is going to allow them to beat the guys we just watched the last few days? Skeptical.

I don't have any idea who would be funding but funding a coach would be the small part of the investment. Funding some stable of talent on spec would involve a huge investment if you are suggesting some year long Olympic training/support/etc. scenario - again, don't know the ins and outs but at the core, even if possible, why bother just to win a Mosconi Cup?
 
smoochie said:
But he's right though, why do you want pool to be boring man? I remember my wife being pissed and going mad whenever I put pool on TV...pool is deadly boring for non-players and sometimes even for players.

Now don't get me wrong I am not saying go to the extreme of what MR is doing right now because thats even though is entertaining for the viewer its also brutal for the player down on the shot, i.e. when Styler was shooting the 9ball. I am not saying go to this extreme, but something in the middle would be nice, just like the few past MC where ppl are allowed to shout but then once player is down at the shot they just respect him and stop yelling....that would be a nice middle-ground.
Click to expand...

If this MC is the model for making pool something other than boring it's a sad day for all of us.

I guess my definition of interesting doesn't include screaming and yelling from drunken louts.

Lou Figueroa
 
jay helfert said:
I see two options, neither one which is that good.

First of let's be clear about the make up of our team. We have one great player in the twilight of his career. A second player who is a Euro convert? Two more players who are journeyman pros. And a Bank Pool specialist. Kind of a patchwork team representing us.
Now let's look at the Euro side. Five high level professional pool players who make this their full time job. And they take their job seriously, working hard on their game to continuously improve. Their collective goal is to be among the best players in the world, and they are!
When you look at it realistically, you can see it's kind a mismatch isn't it.

Option A) Get a full time mental coach for the players on Team USA so at least they can have their heads on straight when it comes to playing in a high stress environment. I can attest to the fact that pool players are coachable and can be taught to play at their highest level. Even if only for one specific event.

Option B) Start all over with a completely new team. I'd like to take a group of five or six promising young players (18-23 years old) and spend a year developing them and their game to prepare themselves for the MC. We do have talent here. I've seen it. But they need some good coaching and instruction to be world class players.

I would100% guarantee that given the chance a completely new team would fare far better than what we've been seeing the last few years. They won't dog it is all I've got to say. There is a way to get past all that.

Can you imagine taking a group of college kids and beating the Russians at Ice Hockey? It could be done in Pool too!

If the powers that be would fund it (maybe to the tune of 100K) I would take on that role for one year of my life. We all know that's never going to happen though, so it is only my little pipe dream.
Click to expand...
Words of wisdom right here. Well said!
 
kling&allen said:
I always love the MC, even this year. But sports typically have rules, and one of those rules in pool until now was the ref would quiet the crowd down before a player got down on a shot. That looks to have changed this year, which maybe is good in the long run (see darts) but the change looks like it was unplanned.

MC should sell noisemakers, lights, and horns next year.
Click to expand...

Vuvuzelas.

Lou Figueroa
 
jb444 said:
I'm used to seeing USA lose but man this year was horrific on another level. What can I say that hasnt already been said 100 times?

Team Europe looked human this year...the rolls seemed equal...the bottom line is that we (USA) missed a big opportunity to cash in.

Everyone played far below their speed on USA except SVB (who overperformed-last match he checked out-fair enough) and Billy. I would consider Fedor to easily be the LVP in terms of "underperformance". I might even go so far as to say he dogged it as many times as Tyler, just not on the 9 ball.

This is a ***TEAM*** event, and the key psychological difference is that when you are out there alone you have only yourself to blame for mistakes, and also only yourself to rely on, and bring your all from there. Team USA started with, presumably, little confidence in eachother and their confidence was fractured more with each heavy blow (self-inflicted) that was dealt. It was impressive in an odd way to see them continue to fight to get up 2-0 in almost every match after so many letdowns.

So where do we go from here? Diluting the event with North America or the Americas doesnt seem to pan out, as evidenced by the Reyes Cup atmosphere. At this point it seems the team has to change, for psychological reasons. The captaincy also has to change, with bringing Johan back as the most glaring option. Skylar doesn't really have the bandwidth to be captain and play his A game and it doesn't seem any other US player qualifies for the job.
Click to expand...

Personally I don't think there is any legit option on the horizon -- no plan, no coach, no US player -- that is going to save us from another beat down next year.

Lou Figueroa
 
lfigueroa said:
Somewhere, very down deep, the temperature has dropped below freezing.

Lou Figueroa
Click to expand...
I was just reminiscing when I wrote that post about the RSB Google Group, my very first experience with social media, long before I emigrated to AZBilliards. Smorgie invited me to come here. I was pretty green back then and hadn't yet learned about the lasting repercussions of words in print. I took a few lumps along the way from some well-timed sucker punches by the local monkeys. :)

This was in the era of dial-up modems. When I posted on RSB, it could take half a day or more for my message to appear. Meanwhile, Lou and a few others had already upgraded to faster bandwidth, so their posts showed up instantly. I remember one time Lou took a jab at me in response to something I'd written, and his reply appeared immediately. My fingers were itching to fire back, and I did, but then came the wait and the wait and the wait for my reply to finally post. Those back-and-forths were pretty historic in their own way, and some of the old RSB crowd have passed away, but there's still a lot of them here on AzBilliards today.
 
jasonlaus said:
Yep, he never moved the needle for anybody. Tommy Kennedy(as nice as he is) has won a US Open, if he won a second would he be in the discussion? It's too bad people cant be put in more than once - Shane is certainly deserving of more than 1 entry, same with Earl. Is Albin in yet? If you ever slept on that guy you were in serious danger
Click to expand...
Albin isn’t old enough yet. Today’s rules are 40-yrs old minimum.
 
That was embarrassing by any measure and I don't see this event being watchable any time soon for the casual fan.

The lack of prep and poor attitude wearing the national colors bothered me, but I'm not surprised.

Sky, Tyler, Billy are not a threat to win any MR event right now. The Euros have at least 10 guys who can win a major. Shane has already said he's stepping away in the next couple years, meaning our best player for the foreseeable future ain't even American.

The bench is not only thin, it's empty.

I really don't blame the players, it's so tough to make a living playing pool. That said, US played like it was a paycheck. Europe came for blood.
 
  • Like
Reactions: JAM
Nice summary from Bill's Yard Facebook page.

FB_IMG_1765112242202.jpg
 
  • Like
Reactions: JAM
I think this has nothing to do with pool skils. usa is just fine. This or that player thats not of a big difference. Other things matter here more.
Usa was not the team. Skyler is not the captain. Shaw is. Even more, Skyler is a poison to the team.
This is team event, in form which is unusual in individual sport like pool, and your behavior can affect the team seriously.
Dude complained to Ghorst that he left him cue ball to close to the nine when he missed on 2:2 against Filler/Neuhaisen, and he smacked it way to hard.
Cmon.. like go f yourself dude..
Can you than imagine other stuff that was happening.
Shane looked totaly emotionless, Ghorst didn't showed up. Billy did his best, Tyler could be better. But, they weren't a team. Europe was.
 
jay helfert said:
I see two options, neither one which is that good.

First of let's be clear about the make up of our team. We have one great player in the twilight of his career. A second player who is a Euro convert? Two more players who are journeyman pros. And a Bank Pool specialist. Kind of a patchwork team representing us.
Now let's look at the Euro side. Five high level professional pool players who make this their full time job. And they take their job seriously, working hard on their game to continuously improve. Their collective goal is to be among the best players in the world, and they are!
When you look at it realistically, you can see it's kind a mismatch isn't it.

Option A) Get a full time mental coach for the players on Team USA so at least they can have their heads on straight when it comes to playing in a high stress environment. I can attest to the fact that pool players are coachable and can be taught to play at their highest level. Even if only for one specific event.

Option B) Start all over with a completely new team. I'd like to take a group of five or six promising young players (18-23 years old) and spend a year developing them and their game to prepare themselves for the MC. We do have talent here. I've seen it. But they need some good coaching and instruction to be world class players.

I would100% guarantee that given the chance a completely new team would fare far better than what we've been seeing the last few years. They won't dog it is all I've got to say. There is a way to get past all that.

Can you imagine taking a group of college kids and beating the Russians at Ice Hockey? It could be done in Pool too!

If the powers that be would fund it (maybe to the tune of 100K) I would take on that role for one year of my life. We all know that's never going to happen though, so it is only my little pipe dream.
Click to expand...
Great idea Jay. By the sound of the chatter though, it sounds like Scott Frost will be captain. He’s already on the payroll and he was talking about something he can’t mention?
 
Is Scott Frost really a coach? Even if he's the second coming of Johan, he can't just wish new good players into existence.

Shane is gone soon and his MC record sucks anyway. It's not like at 43 next year he's gonna find a higher gear.

Fedor would still be in Russia if he wasn't worried he'd have to fight (not that I blame him, that doesn't mean you care about the US).

Our 3-10 just are way behind the Euros...and no pipeline.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top