BORDEAUX - The winner of the battle between two superpowers is almost known. After two days at the Ceulemans Cup, the eight Europeans have a big lead over the 8 Asians. The difference in high class is shown on the scoreboard: 400 against 309 after sixteen matches over two days. The blue European team has a total average of 1.716, the eight best Asians are considerably down: 1.326. The sensation on the second day came from 36-year old Nguyen Quoc Nguyen, who beat the European key player Frédéric Caudron 37-25 in 13 innings. Murat Naci Coklu, announced as the most friendly of all Turkish billiard players, closed the day with the best match in two days: 25 in 7 innings against Dong-Koong Kang. On the final day, Sunday, a small miracle will be needed to bring back the tension into this titanic battle.
Three times only, in two days, the Asians were match winners. HaengJik Kim on the first day against Jérémy Bury, Nguyen Quoc Nguyen on the second day against Frédéric Caudron and Quyet Chien Tran against Torbjörn Blomdahl. The first part of the second day was dominated by the Europeans, who extended the lead to a maximum score of 92 points (300-208). That margin was reduced in the second part, in which the Asians could finally cheer for two victories by Nguyen and Tran. Murat Naci Coklu, in a fantastic match, raised the advantage to 91 in the last match.
The blue train was led by Dani Sánchez and Marco Zanetti on the second day, both with a 25 point match in eight innings. And finally by Murat Naci Coklu in his match against Kang, which he started with a 9 and finished with a big gap: 25-10. Dani Sánchez, the Spanish 4-time world champion, who lost his high position on the ranking, is eager to make a quick come-back. That could not happen fast enough for him in this era of big money events. In the Hurghada World Cup, Sánchez already seemed on his way back in the prerounds with 2.857 average over two matches and runs of 19 and 13.
On this Saturday, in his second appearance for Europe-Asia, the Spaniard again moved through the arena as in his best days. The feared Korean Jae-Ho Cho was shown all corners of the hall in a one way match that Dani led 23-2 in two innings (7 and 6) and 23-2 in six to a comfortable 25-5 in 8 innings. That was the second beating for the Asians in the first session, because Jérémy Bury also showed up in an excellent match playing Minh Cam Ma, which he won 25-6 in 14. The European lead after these two matches already ran out to 68 points (250-182) and was further increased by Marco Zanetti and Eddy Merckx to almost 100 caroms.
Dani Sánchez showed his bright smile at the edge of the arena after his match. He still was enjoying his 13th point, which was later proclaimed 'shot of the day, "This is what I need'', was Dani's first reaction. "I have to fight back and quickly regain my self-confidence. My head has been full of worries for a few months. I am too concerned by the criticism from the outside world. it will be hard to come back. That is what some people say. They even think I should change my position at the billiard. I must not listen to that, but it's all in my mind. Of course I know that it's not about my qualities at the table. And it's not a matter of form, because I play my matches as I have done for years. It's purely a mental issue. I have to win more matches and get into a flow. Then it will be back soon and automatically.''
Sánchez is trying what he must do to get rid of the small crisis, "I didn't have a table in my home, but now I have for two months and I get to practice more. I still need my time for my company with DS Billiards, sometimes I feel a little stress and tension, but the same as when I was at the top. It only has to do with cleaning my mind and regaining my confidence.''
The Ceulemans Cup is the perfect opportunity to make up his mind. The European team puts on an exhibition in this battle, although, not with very high averages. Dani Sánchez was one of the exponents this Saturday, like Marco Zanetti in his match with Sung-Won Choi (25-14 in 8 with runs of 5, 6 and 8) and Eddy Merckx, who played HaengJik Kim and finished his second match in ten innings, making him the best of all sixteen players in average: 2.500.
Nguyen Quoc Nguyen (36), the player with the most emotion in the entire circuit, prepared himself in a Spanish trip with the two other Vietnamese from the team. They visited the Champions League match of Barcelona against Tottenham Hotspur with Dani Sánchez. In France, Nguyen started with a bad match, "I could not adjust to the table and made crazy misses. In Vietnam, the billiards don't have such a slice, we are not used to that. But luckily it was much better today. The match against Caudron was friendly for me. He left nice positions after his misses, so I could make runs and take advantage. It was my fourth match against Caudron, I won twice and lost twice.''
The Vietnamese realized that his victory is not enough to stop Europe on the way to the final victory, "We have thought about the reason and searched for an explanation why we are so far behind. One reason is the strong start of Europe, which meant that we were behind from the start and put under pressure. But it's also because the Europeans, who are older than us, have more experience. We will have to grow even more in the coming years to be able to beat Europe.''
Eddy Merckx leads the individual ranking on average followed by Frédéric Caudron, Marco Zanetti and Murat Naci Coklu. Remarkable is Dick Jaspers' low position, the world champion and world's number one, however has remained unbeaten. In his last match, the Dutchman jumped over Jung-Han Heo in the last inning: 25-24. Torbjörn Blomdahl was close to finish against Tran 24-23. The Vietnamese had the best final sprint and won 30-25. Nguyen Quoc Nguyen gained the best score for Asia in the match he played Caudron to a big loss with a run of five and six at the end: 37-25. The best run with 9 was recorded by three players: Frédéric Caudron, Marco Zanetti and in the final round Murat Naci Coklu in his first inning against Kang. The Turk was rewarded by a thunderous applause for his performance in the last match of the day.
The individual averages after two days and two matches each:
1 Eddy Merckx 2.500
2 Frédéric Caudron 2.083
2 Marco Zanetti 2.083
4 Murat Naci Coklu 1.785
5 Dani Sánchez 1.724
6 Quyet Chien Tran 1.558
7 Nguyen Quoc Nguyen 1.454
8 Dong-Koong Kang 1.437
9 Sung-Won Choi 1.392
10 Jae-Ho Cho 1.380
11 Torbjörn Blomdahl 1.351
12 HaengJik Kim 1.342
13 Jérémy Bury 1.219
14 Dick Jaspers 1.136
15 Minh Cam Ma 1.136
16 Jung-Han Heo 1.022.
The points that they won or lost:
1 Murat Naci Coklu +29
2 Dani Sanchez +20
3 Eddy Merckx +19
4 Marco Zanetti +12
5 Jérémy Bury +9
6 Dick Jaspers +3
6 Tran Quyet Chien +3
8 Frédéric Caudron 0
9 Torbjörn Blomdahl -1
10 Nguyen Quoc Nguyen -2
11 Haeng-Jik Kim -3
12 Jung Han Heo -5
13 Sung Won Choi -11
14 Jae Ho Cho -21
15 Ma Minh Cam -25
16 Dong Koong Kang -27
The last match day, tomorrow, Sunday, starts at 11.00 European time.
Murat Naci Coklu, announced as the most friendly Turkish player, closed the day with the best match: 25 in 7
Dani Sánchez, on his way back with a great match in the Ceulemans Cup
Nguyen Quoc Nguyen was the better of the former world's best, Frédéric Caudron.
Marco Zanetti, one of the European star players
Eddy Merckx, number one on average, Frédéric Caudron, one of three players with the best run of 9
Two Koreans in the stands: Dong-Koong Kang and Jae-Ho Cho
A view of the venue during the Ceulemans Continental Cup