It's not so hard to imagine how it feels to win a World Cup. Your head bursts with joy, you want to hug people, sing, dance, get the interviews over with and then probably have a drink or two. But how does it feel to get all the way to the final, and lose? Even worse, how does it feel to get within a single point of a World Cup and go home empty-handed? Let me tell you: this sport of ours has more ingredients than just skill, confidence, jubilation and prize money. There's also frustration, disappointment, self-hate and excruciating pain. If you can't take that sort of heat, get out of the 3-cushion kitchen.
Here are twelve players who dodged a bullet, and twelve who replayed a point in their head for days.
1986 - Berlin. 15-14 in the fifth set. The winner: Egidio Vieira from Portugal, who was known as "Vierat" in the years he lived in France. The runner-up: Raymond Ceulemans. This was a shocker, because RC was a heavy favorite in every tournament he played. It would remain the only win for the man with the "cap".
1990 - Berlin. 15-14 in the fifth set. The winner: Ludo Dielis. The runner-up: Torbjörn Blomdahl. It was the second World Cup win for the Belgian, and sweet revenge for the final of "Yokohama" a few months earlier, where TB had destroyed him 4-0. (Yes, they played best-of-seven finals in 1989).
1991 - Seoul. 15-14 in the fifth set. The winner: Raymond Ceulemans. The runner-up: Yoshihiko Mano from Japan. Would you believe me if I told you that RC averaged below 1 in the final (0.966) and that the deciding set lasted 21 innings? Mano must have been heartbroken, because he played the tournament of his life, beating Jaspers and Blomdahl on the way to the final.
1994 - Oosterhout. 15-14 in the fifth set. The winner: Christoph Pilss from Austria, he is no longer with us. The runner-up: Torbjörn Blomdahl, who averaged 2.250 for the tournament, Pilss recorded "only" 1.380, but he successively beat Ceulemans, Sang Lee and Blomdahl. That's special. Like Vieira, Pilss was a one-time winner.
1998 - Corfu. 15-14 in the fifth set. The winner: Dick Jaspers. The runner-up: Jorge Theriaga from Portugal. The Portuguese professor was of course the underdog, but his defensive skills were legendary. DJ was a relieved man when he crossed the finish line.
1999 - Kemer. 15-14 in the fifth set. The winner: Torbjörn Blomdahl. The runner-up: Sang Chun Lee. TB's route to the win could not have been much tougher: Zanetti, Jaspers, Sang Lee. With 2.056 tournament average, he towered over the field and added a deserved WC to his long list.
1999 - Oosterhout. 15-14 in the fifth set. The winner: Dick Jaspers. The runner-up: Jorge Theriaga. Yes, those two again, and DJ hammered another nail in the Portuguese coffin. I was there when it happened, and it was unforgettable. Sang Lee would have won the overall World Cup for the year, if Theriaga had made the 15th point. DJ made it, and he won both "Oosterhout" and the overall World Cup.
2000 - Bogota. 15-14 in the fifth set. The winner: Semih Sayginer, for his third WC victory. The runner-up: Torbjörn Blomdahl. Yes, it was the third time in his career that he lost a World Cup final by the smallest possible margin. But let's not feel too sorry for the Swede: he won 44 of these events, which is way more than anybody else. It's a record that will most likely never be broken.
2014 - Porto. 40-39 the final score. The winner: Dick Jaspers. Yes, that was his third WC win by the smallest possible margin. The runner-up: Roland Forthomme. Jaspers had escaped earlier in the tournament when he beat Quyet Chien Tran in a remarkable shootout: 9-4. Forthomme had beaten Caudron, Poly, Coklu and played a terrific event with 1.826 general average.
2018 - Ho Chi Minh City. 40-39 the final score. The winner: Quyet Chien Tran, in front of his own Vietnamese crowd. The runner-up: another Vietnamese supertalent, Ngo Dinh Nai. Thankfully, this match is freely available on YouTube. It's one of the best matches ever played, certainly in the top-10. In that one week, Vietnam emerged as a leading 3-cushion nation. And what a great addition it is!
2018 - La Baule. 40-39 the final score. The winner: position play specialist Martin Horn, his second World Cup win (2.020 general average). The runner-up: Jae Ho Cho, was not far behind with 1.970. The level of play in La Baule was phenomenal, the last 32 players averaged 1.732. Poly, Tasdemir, Bury, Caudron, Jaspers: all over 2 average.
And the closest of them all is...
2014 - Istanbul. 40-40 the final score, and a World Cup final was decided in a shoot-out. The winner: Jae Ho Cho from Korea. The runner-up: Sung Won Choi from Korea. JHC beat his countryman 3-2 from the spots. How often will you see three players from one country on the podium? Kyoung Roul Kim and Merckx were the losing semifinalists, so three Koreans dominated "Istanbul". Belgium and the Netherlands are the only other countries that ever had three players in the last 4 of a World Cup.