American captain Jeremy Jones says that his team have a lot to ponder upon following their disastrous start to the Mosconi Cup at the Alexandra Palace in London.
Europe are firmly in the ascendancy heading into Thursday’s action as a clean sweep in the opening session means they lead 4-0 in their quest to secure a fourth consecutive accolade.
A few crucial errors from Shane van Boening got the Americans off on the wrong foot and, despite the best efforts of rookies Shane Wolford and Fedor Gorst, they were unable to salvage anything from day one.
“When you make some mistakes on some stuff, you almost expect to get punished and it thoroughly happened there,” Jones candidly explained to Matchroom Pool. “I was glad to see some table time for some of the guys, I think that was important.
“Skyler [Woodward] didn’t really get many shots against Filler. Filler put on an exhibition out there in that match. A lot of the other matches were getable, like that one game where they battled and had about ten shots on the five ball apiece at 2-2 and we didn’t come away with that one.
“We’ve got to regroup and we know against this team, just like they can’t miss easy ones and expect to beat us, we can’t miss easy ones and expect to beat them.
“We’ve got some things to think about on our own and then I’ve got some things that I’m going to let them think about, and we’ll move on on day two.”
There were certainly very limited positives from the his team’s showing on the opening day, although the grit and determination shown by his two rookies was something that Jones was particularly pleased about.
“We’d have liked to have had them in the better situation besides 3-0 but there was pressure on both teams I think. You’re up 3-0 and you don’t want to be the first to lose a match or you’re down 3-0 and you want to get on the board,” Jones added.
“I was very impressed by both of them guys. I think Wolford stuck to what we’ve been working on, kept it simple, good strokes and I think Fedor’s got a few things to learn about the table, not so much learn about the table but be a little calmer out there and he’ll be alright.”
Heads were dropping on occasions even this early in the piece, notably Van Boening’s following his few errors, although the skipper insisted that everything remains encouraging in the American camp.
“It’s all positive, just like when we were down during day one in between games. It was all positive when I went out there,” clarified Jones, who is captaining the USA team for a fourth time this year.
“We’re professionals – it’s our job to try to win this cup and besides staying positive, it won’t be sugarcoated and it’ll be directed how I feel like it should be directed.”
