 December 20, 2001 Europe 1 - 2 USA Team Europe drew first blood in the Daily Star-sponsored 2001 Mosconi Cup at the York Hall, Bethnal Green as the pairing of Dutch Terminator Niels Feijen and London-born World Champion Mika Immonen overcame the US pairing of Johnny Archer and Nick Varner in front of a noisy full-house at the York Hall. Crowd noise though was the least of Immonen's problems as he had to ask the American duo to keep their talking to a minimum while he was at the table. However, some errors from the American and good safety from the Europeans saw Mika and Niels run into an early 3-0 lead. With pool's ultimate team prize on offer, the gum chewing veteran Varner and Archer rallied after their nervy start to square it up to 3 racks each after some errors from the Europeans gave them the necessary opportunities. When the crunch came though the European pair played some match-winning shots under pressure and the final rack was a cue for some heroics from Feijen and he clinched the winning 9-ball. Commented Feijen, " That was awesome out there. I felt good coming into the arena but that soon turned to nerves when the match started. I made a great safety shot though and that settled me down. We both felt really confident out there and I think I did really good for a first timer!" In the second match of the evening America squared the match as World No.1 Cory Deuel and debutant Charlie Williams easily overcame the pairing of Marcus Chamat and Londoner Steve Knight. Both Europeans made the kind of mistakes that the likes of Cory Deuel feast on and the 5-1 scoreline was a fair reflection. In the final match of the evening the United States moved into a 2 - 1 lead as the US captain Earl Strickland and Jeremy Jones made light work of Euro skipper Ralf Souquet and crowd favourite Steve Davis. Double J was his usual solid self, confidently running out when the opportunity arose and helping a sub-par Earl along. Indeed, Strickland was suffering from jet lag as he missed his Monday night flight and only arrived in London at 9.00 this morning. By contrast, the Euro pairing were woeful as they presented the Americans with all the chances they needed. Commented Steve Davis after the match, " We're going to have to do better than that if the Mosconi Cup is coming home. To be fair to Ralf, I committed worse sins than him and as we are usually the stronger team in the doubles we will need to pull our collective fingers out tomorrow." Play continues tomorrow with three doubles matches in the afternoon, followed by three singles games in the evening. Full Results ( Europeans first )
Feijen / Immonen 5 - 3 Varner / Archer |