I arrived in Las Vegas a few days before the tournament. I gave myself a week diving vacation in Boracay after the World Championship in Manila but still enough time to get back in competition mode. On the Tuesday before the Cup we went practicing with the team at Pool Sharks. That was a lot of fun. I must say our captain Alex Lely did a great job. The communication was very good, he even send us a self-filmed youtube video a few weeks before to say some personal words to each of us. We went for a walk every morning and had a collective breakfast.

On paper we were the favorites. Each of Europe’s Mosconi Cup members had won one major event this year. Darren the World 10-Ball at the end of 2008, the World Pool Masters Champion, Ralf won the World Games and was the reigning World 8-Ball Champion, Niels made it to six major tournament finals and I won the China Open. Mika won pretty much every tournament he entered, including the US Open again, the World 10-Ball just the week before and Qatar.
But I knew that would not matter at the Mosconi Cup. For me the USA was presenting their best team ever. Not having Earl on the team was a plus and playing on home soil could be an advantage for them.

The first day was a disaster. We made a lot of unnecessary mistakes in the 5 against 5 and allowed the Americans to build up confidence and momentum. Looking back this was already the beginning of the end.

The players:

Darren impressed me with what a great team player he is. He said a lot of personal stuff to me that triggered something and got me pumped up for my singles matches. I think his break was a little weak at times and he was very unlucky in his match against Archer, who played perfect pool after being down 1:5. A very crucial moment for the American victory.

Niels was super solid in the beginning. He came with many tough shots and looked strong. Unfortunately he missed only a couple but important shots against Hatch in his singles matches.

Mika was out of shape, you could tell. He arrived late in Vegas and got sick the first day with fever. The man who was the MVP the year before could have made a difference but Mika wasn’t the strong Iceman this week in Vegas.

Ralf is the man, always. He has the best nerves and looked strong all week. He did his job and if Shane would not have played great in the last match we could have turned it around, maybe.

I was happy overall with my performance. I made some silly mistakes in the team and doubles but got stronger and stronger towards the end. Probably my best Mosconi Cup performance ever. But still I haven’t won one…

In my opinion we lost it the first day. There were some situations every day that could have easily changed the outcome at the end. Just a few more rolls to our favor. The strong comeback from Archer against Darren, the many hill-hill matches we lost, or a lucky safety in the team game with Deuel/Archer and me/Darren.

I must congratulate to a deserving champion team America. They played great and beat a great team. It was fun. I lost my voice from all the yelling “Europe, Europe” The Mosconi Cup is the best event of the year and its a privilege to be nominated. I will do my very best to make it again in 2010. The trophy must return….