AMAZING THAILAND CARRIES ASIA?S COLORS VS GERMANY IN WORLD CUP OF POOL FINALS
By Ronnie Nathanielsz
PhilBoxing.com
Sun, 11 Sep 2011
Semi Final Results
Germany 9 ? 7 Korea
Thailand 9 ? 3 Chinese Taipei
With the two Philippine tandems failing to get past the quarter finals it was left to the surprising Thais to carry the Asian colors and face off against the formidable Germans in the World Cup of Pool finals at the SM North Edsa Mall in Quezon City on Sunday.
The Philippines ?A? team of World No. 1 Dennis Orcollo and No. 4 Ronnie Alcano lost a hill-hill heartbreaker 9-8 to the brothers Ko from Chinese-Taipei after Alcano flubbed a succession of easy shots while pool legends Efren ?Bata? Reyes and Francisco ?Django? Bustamante who won the crown twice were badly beaten by Ralf Souquet and Thorsten Hohmann 9-1.
Reyes who suffered a bad case of LBM was weak and totally off and Bustamante couldn?t do anything to save the day against the Germans who played precise pool all throughout but acknowledged that the illness of Reyes had a lot to do with the lopsided result.
Thailand, the surprise package of the tournament played some sensational pool to trounce Chinese-Taipei 9-3 in the semi finals while the Germans hit a bad patch and labored for a 9-7 win over a surprisingly resilient South Korean pair.
Matchroom Sport executive Luke Riches reported that the German duo of Ralf Souquet and Thorsten Hohmann ? survived a massive scare against the unheralded Korean pairing of Hwang Yong and Lee Gun Jae as they found themselves 6-2 down in the race to 9 match. The Koreans played fluently in the early stages while the Germans never looked at ease. ?
However, Riches reported that a dry break from Lee in the ninth session ?seemed to be the turning point and from there the Germans won six consecutive games as the Koreans disappeared from the game. Lee and Hwang won a final rack as it looked to go to the wire but they made too many errors over the second half of the match to close out the victory.?
The Germans will need to play much better pool if they hope to win tonight?s final.
In a post match interview Soquet paid tribute to his partner Hohmann . Souquet said, ?First of all I have to give my respect to Thorsten as he pulled me through as I made so many mistakes and missed so many balls. At the beginning we had a few problems where he missed some and we couldn?t find any rhythm. Being 6-2 down we got together, took a time out and came out with a different plan. It didn?t go as we wanted but a win is a win.?
Hohmann added, ?Give Team Korea respect as they took advantage of our mistakes and deserved to be in the lead. When we took a time out we said ?we?re still champions and can still come back?. From then on we started playing better, got some rolls here and there and now we?re in the final.?
The PartyPoker.net World Cup of Pool opened with 32 two-player teams representing 31 nations with hosts Philippines having two sides. The total prize-fund is $250,000 with $60,000 going to the winning pair.
The second semi final was a dandy as Team Thailand put in a near flawless showing as they flattened the challenge of the Ko brothers from Taiwan, running out 9-3 winners.
As the Matchroom Sport executive pointed out ? Nobody would have predicted this one in advance; the Thais don?t have much pedigree in 9 ball, while the Taiwanese were coming in off the back of a great win over the Philippines last night.?
Some glaring errors from Ko Pin-yi in the early stages were pounced on by Nitiwat Kanjanasri and Kobkit Palajin who looked a stress-free picture of calmness throughout.
The nearest the Taiwanese came was 4-2 but every mistake was ruthlessly punished by the Thais.
Thailand has now beaten Holland, Estonia, Poland and Taiwan and while on paper they may be distant second favorites behind Germany, there won?t be many who saw today?s performance who will be prepared to make that bet.
The 2011 World Cup of Pool is sponsored by PartyPoker.net, the world?s leading online poker school.
Click here to view a list of other articles written by Ronnie Nathanielsz.
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