Team USA will not have Justin Bergman at Mosconi Cup
- Thread starter JAM
- Start date
The announcement of it could have been handled better which is key these days. In many instances how something is delivered has grown to be more important than the message itself.
At the end of the day, for whatever reason he’s not playing this year. Find a suitable replacement and move ahead.
At the end of the day, for whatever reason he’s not playing this year. Find a suitable replacement and move ahead.
Maybe they were trying to force him into coach class so he said screw it! Lol
I think our only hope this year is if they let Shane and Skyler play all the matches. You know, a two man tag team versus Team Europe. If only we could slip Roberto Gomez, Jeff De Luna and James Aranas in disguised as __________, __________ and _________.
Have you ever heard the saying, "A snowballs chance in Hell?" That's what comes to mind here. And then there was The Miracle On Ice in 1980 when a team of American college hockey players beat a stacked Russian team to win the Gold Medal in the Olympics.
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The US is definitely a big underdog, but they somehow were able to win the MC two years in a row before last year, so who knows. MC format features such short matches that anything can happen.
Maybe they should try the following line up: SVB, Sky, Deuel, Engel (new face to MC- he can really play but may struggle with the shot clock. If not Engel, then maybe give Roberts a try as aforementioned by Jay), and Jones (for a calming veteran presence).
Maybe they should try the following line up: SVB, Sky, Deuel, Engel (new face to MC- he can really play but may struggle with the shot clock. If not Engel, then maybe give Roberts a try as aforementioned by Jay), and Jones (for a calming veteran presence).
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Personally, I think our only shot is if Team Europe brings it "C" game while Team USA brings its "A" game. If Team Europe will be Gorst, Filler, Kaci, Shaw, Ouschan, all of them above 810 Fargo Rate , then they'll clearly have five of the six best players at the Mosconi. Another thing that would help Team USA's chances would be bucket tables, which give the underdogs a far better shot at pulling off big upsets against elite players.
Billy Thorpe and Josh Roberts, both at Fargo 771 would be at least a 40 point underdog based on Fargo in every singles match and Tyler Styer, at Fargo 760, would be at least a 50 point Fargo underdog in every one of his singles matches.
Perhaps Europe will do us a favor, as in the past, when they omitted Filler from the team in 2018 and omitted Gorst from the team in 2019. In each case, the omitted player was World 9-ball champion within a few weeks of the completion of the Mosconi.
One thing that people tend to forget is that, despite its race to five format, the Mosconi is a marathon and not a sprint. To win 11 matches is no small feat.
i think that realistically your team is probably the best.
but, here's some food for thought, or fuel to flame:
pushed chang to his limits there. shot clock is a non-issue. good playing form atm. knows more about moving that cue ball around than most rotation players...
I fully agree that Chohan is worth a really hard look. Was thinking the same thing watching him slickly run racks last night. He had a real strong showing at Texas Open 9 Ball too. I'd pretty easily choose him over at least two of the three guys USA would be considering not named Shane or Sky.
I think we should have a full "throwback" team. Shane, Sky, Corey, Johnny Archer and Rodney Morris. And have Earl be the co-captain so he can get a paycheck. This team would have just as good a chance as any other one we could cobble together.
P.S. I really do like the Chohan pick. Now that makes sense. Here is a guy who is fearless and has a big game. He scares people, just like Keith used to do. I'd vote for him if I had a vote, which I don't. Now you're talking, Shane, Sky, Corey, Tony and Josh. Just the kind of line-up that could jell and send some tremors down their spines. We definitely need some new blood to shake things up.
If Team USA can give Chris Robinson-Reinhold a Mosconi Cup spot, then Josh Roberts surely deserves an opportunity as well.
Too bad that for years Shane has been given the final say of who gets on Team USA or not... so Josh's chances are most likely slim and none.
All the politics are ruining Team USA and professional pool in America.
Don't belive me? Go ask Tyler Styer.
his fargo is also not really showing his speed i would argue. he never took 9-ball that seriously and has himself said that because there's no real tour he has had no reason to either. now that bigger tournaments are lining up on US soil, and maybe a tour is on the horizon.. we see a different tony playing rotation games.
i guess we will see in the upcoming month.
Ya, we never really got an explanation why Tyler was left off the team last year especially after Bergman dropped out due to Covid. I wonder what it is about him (or them; Shane, JJ, etc.) that led to that exclusion. That's an interesting comment about Shane and Josh too which does not surprise me based on the couple times I've watched them play each other.
The apparent politics being what they are bodes well for Billy and Chris looks like.
Team USA , no matter who is on the team, needs to work on two things... two MAJOR things....
Not sure the exact percentages, but it seems if we lose the lag, 70% of the time we lose the match. If we win the lag and make nothing on the break, or lose cue ball position for the next ball , 70% of time we lose the match.
Europe is far ahead of the United States in the last several years when it comes to the lag, and the break. Except for 2019 if my memory serves.
Not sure the exact percentages, but it seems if we lose the lag, 70% of the time we lose the match. If we win the lag and make nothing on the break, or lose cue ball position for the next ball , 70% of time we lose the match.
Europe is far ahead of the United States in the last several years when it comes to the lag, and the break. Except for 2019 if my memory serves.
It almost seems like it was Matchrooms decision to exclude Bergmann. Does anyone know whether it was Bergmanns choice or Matchrooms decision??
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Adapted from a post I made after the 2020 Mosconi Cup:
I really tire of hearing this myth over and over. It's time to let go of the lag argument.
Per At Large, Team USA won just 46% of the racks in which it broke in the 2020 Mosconi Cup. That means that even in a match in which they break on the double hill, they were underdogs to win the match. They won 36% of the racks when Team Europe broke. In short, the US was unsuccessful in racks across the board, whether they broke or not.
No, the lag didn't kill Team USA, bad play killed them. Even if Team USA wins every lag in the Mosconi, it will make no difference. Team USA's tactical skills have, as a rule in the past decade, been woefully weak, giving them fewer run out chances, and Team USA executes the run outs at a far lesser rate than Team Europe.
Heaven forbid that Team USA focuses on lag practice in their preparation. Let Team USA learn to a) play better defense, b) jump/kick/masse better, and c) execute the runouts better. If they don't, they will have little to no chance unless Team Europe is way off its game.
Every year it seems there are posters who boldly declare the US has no chance, Europe could field 5 different teams better than the US, the US needs Alex, the US needs the entire Filipino nation, the US needs Thanos to snap before the Mosconi Cup, and on and on.
MOST of those same posters said the same thing before the US won in 2018, and most doubled down and were more sure the Americans would get torched in 2019.
Even Jayson Shaw stated while commentating a match not long ago, there is very little difference between the top Americans and the rest of the world. He even went on to say that he knows of several junior players (one that plays out of his poolroom) that are on track to play at world class speed sooner rather than later.
Certainly the Euros are stronger "on paper", but to say the US doesn't have a chance or needs a miracle, is simply hyperbole for the sake of hyperbole. Luckily for the US side, the match must be won on the cloth and not by a comparison of fargo rates
MOST of those same posters said the same thing before the US won in 2018, and most doubled down and were more sure the Americans would get torched in 2019.
Even Jayson Shaw stated while commentating a match not long ago, there is very little difference between the top Americans and the rest of the world. He even went on to say that he knows of several junior players (one that plays out of his poolroom) that are on track to play at world class speed sooner rather than later.
Certainly the Euros are stronger "on paper", but to say the US doesn't have a chance or needs a miracle, is simply hyperbole for the sake of hyperbole. Luckily for the US side, the match must be won on the cloth and not by a comparison of fargo rates
Get Double J in the mix and your list and we’ll have something
Forgive me if you're just having some fun here, but .....
The last time we had a "throwback team" was in 2013, when Matchroom selected Team USA. SVB, Dennis Hatch, Johnny Archer, Earl Strickland and Rodney Morris, deemed the US All-Stars by Matchroom, lost 11-2 in a dispiriting massacre by Team Europe and an embarrassing scenario in which there was no need for Day 4 of the competition. I recall scrambling to find a flight home one day earlier than planned.
Next time we field a "throwback team," I doubt I'll watch. Participation needs to remain on merit if all the tournaments leading up to the Mosconi are to be as meaningful as possible. In the words of UCLA Coach John Wooden, "if you give me a choice between talent and experience, I'll take talent every time."