SEOUL - The clash between Asia and Europe is called the Continental Cup and is dominated by the Asians after the first day. After eight matches, the home team is leading 200-135. That is a totally unexpected start of the encounter, which was played for the first time in Bordeaux last year and won by Europe by a big margin: 600-483, 117 points of difference. The roles are reversed after one day now by a comfortable margin of 65 points in Asian favor. The European team, with the eight best ranked players, came back well in the last match of the day due to a strong playing Dick Jaspers, but urgently needs a tough come-back. The home advantage in the Hotel Park Habio apparently played a major role, like in Bordeaux last year for the European team. But then, after one day, the lead was only 29 points in European favor. The supremacy was now much bigger. The Asians showed from the start that they surely want revenge, had a 83 points lead (175-92) after seven matches, but a little of that was taken away in Dick Jaspers' last match against Jae-Ho Cho (43-25) in 14)
The cheerful faces in the Asian box were in a strong contrast to the gloomy looks on the other side. Torbjörn Blomdahl, not in the top eight of the rankings, so not in the line-up, looked with great surprise at the opening day: ''Who could have thought this, the Asians taking such a big lead on the Europeans. With a fantastic average of eight players. This is really unimaginable. Thanks to Dick Jaspers, fortunately there is a little chance for a come-back.''
The continental match, following the example of the Ryder Cup in golf and the Mosconi Cup in pool billiard, was placed on the calendar for the second year and is organized by Kozoom in partnership with the Korean Billiards Federation. This year (Friday to Sunday) the live broadcast is made more attractive thanks to an excellent commentary from world champion Torbjörn Blomdahl and Kozoom analyst Bert van Manen. On the three days of the match, eight players from each team play against each other to 25 caroms and to a total of 600 points.
The big lead of the Asians after Friday is mainly due to the victories of Nguyen Quoc Nguyen over Jérémy Bury (25-2 in 6 innings), Jung-Han Heo over Eddy Merckx (25-7 in eight innings) and Dinh Nai Ngo against Tayfun Tasdemir (25-7 in 7 innings). The European team won only two of the eight games and, after the two 25-7 margins, faced another hard knock-out. In the seventh match, Nguyen Quoc Nguyen was on fire, made a run of 15 against Jérémy Bury and to finish, the man with the wonderful smile scored more fantastic points. It was the best match of the day, although Ngo and Heo also were amazing with their 25 in 7 games. Even the four-time world champion Dani Sánchez had no chance against his pupil, the junior world champion, Myung-Woo Cho: 15-16 in 13.
Marco Zanetti reduced the deficit in the third match against HaengJik Kim from 21 to 12 points. In the two matches that followed, Heo and Ngo increased the margin with spectacular scores. The 'blue train' only regained some hope in the last match when Dick Jaspers played Jae-Ho Cho. The Dutchman ran out to a 20-10 lead by a 13-run and later won 43-25. With Marco Zanetti as a stylish conductor in the box, there was finally some enthusiasm to be seen during that last match. There is hope again for the next two days in the clash.
The results on the first day, Asia-Europe:
Quyet Chien Tran-Semih Sayginer 25-14 (9)
Sung-Won Choi-Murat Naci Coklu 25-15 (14)
HaengJik Kim-Marco Zanetti 25-34 (15/14)
Jung-Han Heo-Eddy Merckx 25-7 (8)
Dinh Nai Ngo-Tayfun Tasdemir 25-7 (7)
Myung-Woo Cho-Dani Sánchez 25-16 (13)
Nguyen Quoc Nguyen-Jérémy Bury 25-2 (6)
Jae-Ho Cho-Dick Jaspers 25-43 in 14.
Nguyen Quoc Nguyen: beat Jérémy Bury 25-2 in 6
Dick Jaspers closed a little of the margin by his win over Jae-Ho Cho
The blue train in the European box needs a tough come-back
Dinh Nai Ngo the better of Tayfun Tasdemir
Jung-Han Heo, comfortable win over Eddy Merckx