Tyler Styer unleashed a war of words on Jayson Shaw and the European team at a heated Mosconi Cup press conference, bringing up Europe’s treatment of Joshua Filler before last year’s event.
Styer’s home truths came following Shaw’s accusations that Shane van Boening had sent text messages saying that he would rather have Lukas Fracasso-Verner on the team over Billy Thorpe, attempting to create friction in the USA camp.
Two-time champion Styer then dropped the bomb and was not willing to brush Europe’s previous remarks towards Filler under the carpet, with the German having been removed from the 2024 edition in Orlando, Florida due to ‘concerns over contractual obligations and team integrity’.
“I’ll break the silence,” UK Open semi-finalist Styer began, fomenting chaos in what was a relatively subdued press conference until that point.
“The amount of s*** that these guys talked about Josh last year for stabbing his guys in the back by going and playing that World 8-Ball when he said he wasn’t going to.
“Every single one of them bashed the crap out of him – every single one, even Moritz [Neuhausen] was talking bad about him. So if Jayson wants to get ugly like that, we can get really f****** ugly.”
European captain Shaw was straight to the defence of what unfolded last time around, and fired back at the Americans, passionately mentioning the fear factor surrounding the three-time MVP in Filler.
“We didn’t want him to play if he was going to go and play in the World 8-Ball because we couldn’t play because we were banned,” European skipper Shaw responded.
“But the difference is you didn’t want him to play because you were scared of him – that’s the big difference. And you can’t come back to that because one million percent, you just didn’t want him on the team because you were scared of him – it’s as simple as that.
“We didn’t want him on [the team] if he was going to go and play another tournament while we were all banned. So why should he play the Mosconi and then get to play a tournament that we are all banned from?
“But you just wanted him banned because you were scared of him, and there ain’t no two ways about that. You were just scared of him. And now, he’s back, and you’re going to see the real Filler.”
Styer expanded on the situation surrounding Filler, contentiously saying that he was merely drafted back in to help rookies Moritz Neuhausen and Pijus Labutis and that Europe requires him more this year.
“He qualified by points last year and nobody wanted to play with him,” Styer added. “They said, ‘I’m not coming, I’m not playing if Josh is there’, right? The only reason he’s here this year is because you’ve got two rookies and you need him. You feel like you need him.”
There was no letting up from Shaw nonetheless and it was him who had the final word in brutal fashion. “We didn’t need him last year,” he said. “We beat you with Mickey Mouse. What are you talking about?
“Listen, the Mosconi Cup is all about bottle, right? It’s about how much bottle you’ve got. Unfortunately, you don’t have that much bottle. So that’s why you keep losing – it’s as simple as that.
“We know what it takes to win and we’ve done it more times. We’ve been there. We know how to handle the pressure. It’s just as simple as that.
“You’ve got a couple of guys there that can do it, but overall as a team, you just don’t know how to do it properly. You just need a European coach. You just need another European player.
“You’ll have another European player next year and a guy from South America. Soon you’ll have no Americans on the team. It’ll just be Europe against Europe.”
