EUROPE CLOSING IN ON PARTYPOKER MOSCONI CUP REDEMPTION

TEAM EUROPE 8-2 TEAM USA

Jayson Shaw 5–4 Shane van Boening
Shaw/Filler 5-4 Woodward/Robinson
Fedor Gorst 5-2 Corey Deuel
Kaci/Ouschan 5-4 Van Boening/Thorpe
Jayson Shaw 5-3 Billy Thorpe

Europe are closing in on partypoker Mosconi Cup redemption having dominated the second day of play at Ricoh Arena, Coventry, live on Sky Sports Mix and DAZN.

Alex Lely’s side lead Team USA 8-2 having won all five matches played on Tuesday evening, Scotland’s Jayson Shaw leading from the front with two singles and a doubles win. It means Europe need just three more points to regain the Cup after two years of USA success.

“It is a good scoreline and was great play,” said European Captain Alex Lely. “There were a couple of hill-hill finishes and I am very content.

“Jayson has looked so good from day one in our preparations when we gathered here four days before the event. He has been doing out in the arena what he has been doing in the practice toom.

“They are champions, they know that they are entitled to a little celebration now but nothing over the top, just game on tomorrow to try and finish as quickly and clinically as we can because we will be up against a lot of those guys next year.”

Europe had held a 3-2 lead at the end of an eventful opening day. The second session of play began with the Fans’ Choice match, which saw Shaw nominated for Europe while Van Boening won the vote for USA.

As was the case in both singles matches on day one, the fixture went hill-hill. Shaw had come back from 3-1 down to level earlier in the match and had the advantage of breaking. After coming out on top in some early safety play, the Scot won the deciding rack to consign Van Boening to his third successive Fans’ Choice defeat.

Another hill-hill followed, and again Shaw held his nerve for a European point. He and Filler were facing Woodward and Robinson, and breaking for the match the European duo ran out to give their team a 5-2 partypoker Mosconi Cup lead.

Europe’s momentum continued into the third match of the evening as rookie Fedor Gorst dismissed Corey Deuel with an assured 5-2 victory. In the fourth match, Van Boening and Thorpe didn’t do too much wrong but lost 5-4 to Ouschan and Kaci, leaving the hosts 7-2 ahead.

The whitewash was completed by Shaw, who defeated Thorpe 5-3 and has made himself a front-runner for the MVP crowd.

“Lady Luck, she’s American but she wasn’t in the building for us today,” said USA Captain Jeremy Jones.

“It’s 9-ball pool, the break didn’t work out for us, and you look at Shaw who won three points but made more mistakes than anybody in the building; that’s 9-ball, it’s how it is. Our guys have to take advantage when advantage is there and keep fighting.

“We will stay spirited and stick to the game-plan. A few individual game plans got away, and the process got away from them, but you can see they are fighting. Those guys made us come off an eight-year drought, they made that happen.

The partypoker Mosconi Cup continues on Thursday at 6:30pm (UK time), with live coverage continuing on Sky Sports Mix in the UK, DAZN in territories including USA, Germany and Austria and Match TV in Russia. Full broadcast details can be found at www.matchroompool.com.

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