Mosconi Cup - The Players Demeanor, Prep & Coaching

Kickin' Chicken

Kickin' Chicken

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The differences in demeanor between Team USA and Team Europe were stark. And, I believe, in preparation and coaching, as well.

Team Europe came to Vegas like men on a mission with a job to do and, do a job, they sure did. Mission accomplished! Congrats to them for their terrific showing. :thumbup:

Team USA came on what looked like a paid vacation to Vegas to play a little pool. As we saw, they played poorly and so, yes, they got to play 'a little' pool - two days worth, instead of three. :(

Having played sports in my youth and being a sports fan for much of my life, I have learned the value of winning with humility and losing with grace. So, I don't begrudge Team USA simply for their loss because everyone can have an off day or even a bad event. Also, your team can simply be out matched. That's sports.

What I do have an issue with, though, goes more to the hows and whys.

Without turning this into a novella, what stands out to me are the following:

Compared to team Europe, we were outclassed. I know it's not necessary to point this one out but we never once heard a commentator apologize for foul language coming from a Team Europe player's mic but it happened many times with Team USA. From three of five players. That is unacceptable behavior, imo, and I think there should be some sort of penalty (reduce the offenders paychecks) for these occurrences in the future. If the goal is to attract the widest possible audience to enjoy our sport, including kids, dropping F-bombs while on camera ain't good business.

Earl - what can be said? I love the guy, I respect his game and accomplishments, immensely. He is not a good representative for our country. The Matchroom folks knew this before inviting him and, so, I suppose they were looking for the sideshow effect for their ratings. They got a triple dose. While it's true Earl has had a hot-stick lately, whether he belonged at MC is debatable. I think there is definitely a degree of exploitation by Matchroom. My guess would be this was Earl's last MC appearance. I see Karl gave him back one of those famous handshakes like what Earl provided Ralf with at a previous MC. That move by Karl was the closest I saw to team Europe having bad manners. I probably would have shot Earl. :eek:

The give up: When I saw (and heard) what was going on in what turned out to be the last match with Rodney and Dennis playing shots they would not ordinarily, but because of the lopsided score, they did, really rubbed me wrong. I was always taught in sports, never give up. One-stroking shots and acting cavalier was, to my mind, unprofessional and inappropriate. Play hard and play your best until there is no more air. And, btw, I really enjoy Rodney and I know his game is fast but he absolutely, and unequivocally, missed some shots during this MC due to his one or two-stroking shots.

Coaching: They referred to Buddy as Team USA's "vice captain". I was glad to see him there and thought it was a nice and fitting honor. I don't know how much actual coaching he did, or was expected to do, but it would be hard to find a more brilliant 9-ball mind than his. I did see him try to settle Earl down once and maybe he provided some coaching assistance behind the scenes.

As for Johnny as a coach, or anyone for that matter in the role of a playing coach; perhaps it's time to rethink the model. There is a lot to do and if you have to keep yourself ready to play your own matches, automatically this distracts you from being the best coach you can be. Not Johnny's fault, just a flawed design, imo. Johann seems to get maximum performance from his players every match.

It's time to take a lesson from Team Europe. I don't think what we've been witnessing is a lucky streak. They are on a roll and for good reason.

Preparedness, professionalism. and embracing the concept of team play would be a good starting point.

best,
brian kc <--- said it wouldn't be a novella and now look what I done... :embarrassed2: :grin: :wink:
 
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Well written synopsis and I couldn't agree more. Team Europe had that touch of class while Team USA showed very little.
 
my thoughts exactly....you hit every point....time for usa to re-design everything and everyone from top down......
 
It really reminded me of an Olympic event. Athletes from the European Union, East and West have a certain amount of Government support as well as National support, while most American athletes are pulled from their job at Home Depot a month or two ahead of time and told to gel into a cohesive team unit. America no longer has such superior athletes so this approach doesn't really work much anymore. The only sport this would work in anymore is probably American Football. Where the rest of the world used to lag behind in many athletic events and competitions, this is no longer the case, the world has, in most cases, caught up.

I think if you have a look at how basketball has evolved on the world stage, pool is kind of a parallel to that. The Americans used to dominate. They didn't have to have a team mentality because they were just so much better. Then the other countries began to develop fundamentals and basics and worked them to perfection while the Americans still relied on natural talent.

In a longer race someone with the natural talent of these guys can get hot and reel off a six pack or ten in a row, we've all seen it happen. Then all they have to do is stay ahead. In a short race you don't have time to get hot and traditionally in most sports Americans rely to much on natural ability. It's really a shame, all that talent and no discipline or poor fundamentals.

Back in the days of Magic Johnson and Larry Bird and a young Michael Jordan, you could have put that Olympic Dream team up against any other roster of players at any time and with no practice they would have cleaned house, they understood team play and what was for the good of the team, they had natural talent and solid fundamentals and they relied on each other, they were very unique athletes as Americans. They were truly students of the game, every day they developed their game and got better every day. American pool doesn't have that, they have SVB who is probably the most gifted player in the world today. Short race, long race, he probably still wins most of the time.

Where the Mosconi Cup is concerned the USA doesn't necessarily need to have the five best players, they need five of the best players that play best together
 
Europe definitely played well

and while I don't agree with Earl's constant banter about the bad rolls the U.S. was getting, it did seem almost uncanny how often USA ended up bad after the break.

As much as I like Earl, he is too distracting to his teammates and I think his constant whining and *****ing puts more pressure not only on them, but himself. He missed a couple shots against Boyes that I don't believe he would have missed, but talking all that crap about how Boyes 'can't play' really just put more pressure on some of Earls shots.

There was talk about how Europe was preparing each day for the matches, to get their players in the right mindset. I would imagine they all did some combination of meditation, yoga, muscle relaxation techniques, visualization, and massage. They all seemed to be very well focused.

I do think players from Canada should be allowed to play on the U.S. team, maybe change it to the 'North American' team. Although Alex might be the only Canadian who could make a difference, but Morra plays pretty well too.

Needless to say, starting out 0-5 is not a recipe for American success.
 
Earl is a player full of emotion and I think he may have been trying to get to his opponents head. He no longer has the dominant game and needs this type of behavior to gain an upper hand in matches. Sometimes it works and sometimes it doesn't. Mostly he is just a poor sport and his record indicates such.
 
Good analysis of what happened, I would like to offer my point of view.
This year's MC showed that team chemistry is indeed the most important thing when it comes to any level of competition, especially this high.
Selection of team members is a tough procedure, having to consider form of players, abilities and balance them into a whole. That doesn't have to do only with team spirit but also with with the style of game that every player has and combining this style with another and so on.
Regarding the conclusions drawn about players, tournament presentation and effect on pool in general I'd say it's kind of early to go into that since the emotional factor plays a part right now, it's better to wait for some time and then tournament directors get the feedback from the pool world and try to make the best of it.
Congratulations to both teams, here in Europe we are happy both about the result and the way team Europe played, I mentioned in another relative thread that the European situation of pool is no better than the one of USA, at least not in a significant way.
Hope everything that needs to be done to preserve this great event will take place again next year with a future prospect.
 
Celophanewrap said:
It really reminded me of an Olympic event. Athletes from the European Union, East and West have a certain amount of Government support as well as National support, while most American athletes are pulled from their job at Home Depot a month or two ahead of time and told to gel into a cohesive team unit. America no longer has such superior athletes so this approach doesn't really work much anymore. The only sport this would work in anymore is probably American Football. Where the rest of the world used to lag behind in many athletic events and competitions, this is no longer the case, the world has, in most cases, caught up.

I think if you have a look at how basketball has evolved on the world stage, pool is kind of a parallel to that. The Americans used to dominate. They didn't have to have a team mentality because they were just so much better. Then the other countries began to develop fundamentals and basics and worked them to perfection while the Americans still relied on natural talent.

In a longer race someone with the natural talent of these guys can get hot and reel off a six pack or ten in a row, we've all seen it happen. Then all they have to do is stay ahead. In a short race you don't have time to get hot and traditionally in most sports Americans rely to much on natural ability. It's really a shame, all that talent and no discipline or poor fundamentals.

Back in the days of Magic Johnson and Larry Bird and a young Michael Jordan, you could have put that Olympic Dream team up against any other roster of players at any time and with no practice they would have cleaned house, they understood team play and what was for the good of the team, they had natural talent and solid fundamentals and they relied on each other, they were very unique athletes as Americans. They were truly students of the game, every day they developed their game and got better every day. American pool doesn't have that, they have SVB who is probably the most gifted player in the world today. Short race, long race, he probably still wins most of the time.

Where the Mosconi Cup is concerned the USA doesn't necessarily need to have the five best players, they need five of the best players that play best together
Click to expand...

a fair analogy, I think.

best,
brian kc
 
I learned a lot on this MC that I will use in my APA team! This was a necessary evil.
 
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