PORTO - The silver European Cup went to FC Porto again, the Turks from FBN Tekstil Spor again grabbed next to European gold for club teams. Dick Jaspers, the world number one, finally made the winning carom in the extension after 4-4 in the final and Tayfun Tasdemir, the world champion, missed the decisive point for the title. The 'blue army' with its leader Dick Jaspers and further with Torbjörn Blomdahl, Rui Costa and Jose Miguel Soares stood on the highest podium to receive the trophy and show off the Portuguese national anthem, just like last year. And also, the Turks from Tekstil Spor were the final losers by penalty shoots. Further on the podium as the numbers three were the Danes from BK Varde and the Spaniards from Castalla.
The European Cup in this format, which has been criticised in quite a few countries due to the arbitrary composition of the (top)teams, will undoubtedly be played again next year in the title holder's Portuguese arena. The format, in which the line-up of the teams is allowed to be formed with self-selected players, is bound to be questioned again. The two top favorites, FC Porto and Tekstil Spor, were in the final again this year. The best, unbeaten players among the top two teams were Berkay Karakurt with 8 matches and 8 wins and Dick Jaspers, who played no preliminary rounds with FC Porto, with 4 wins and 1 draw against Eddy Merckx.
FC Porto, the eventual winner, was not that superior as in the previous edition because it had to play without Dani Sánchez (left to the PBA). Torbjörn Blomdahl lost two of his five games, Rui Costa even four of five. Jose Miguel Soares, the fourth man, was not in his best form, but did drag FC Porto through a weak moment, when he secured the decisive match points against Allan Schröder in the semi-final against Varde. Dick Jaspers played a draw against Eddy Merckx in that match, Torbjörn Blomdahl won against Jean Paul de Bruijn and Rui Costa lost to Thomas Andersen.
Tekstil Spor qualified for the final by a 6-2 win over Castalla. The Spaniards had a superb leader in Sergio Jimenez, who beat Tayfun Tasdemir 40-34 in 25 and Marco Zanetti 40-22 in 16, among others. Only Eddy Merckx, who remained unbeaten for Varde, managed to win against the Spanish captain. For Tekstil Spor, Gökhan Salman was of great value with seven wins in eight games, but Berkay Karakurt was the undisputed standout.
The format for the final was the same as last year: at 4-4 in matches, the four players per team had to play shoot-outs against their opponents. The team with the most points, was the winner.
The results in the regular matches were:
Jaspers-Tasdemir 40-29 in 16
Blomdahl-Karakurt 34-40 in 28
Rui Costa-Salman 24-40 in 24
Tüzül-Soares 29-40 in 31
The penalty shoot-outs:
Jaspers-Tasdemir 3-1
Blomdahl-Karakurt 0-2
Costa-Salman 3-2
Soares-Tüzül 0-0
Final score: 6-5 for FC Porto.
Final ranking:
- FC Porto
- FBN Tekstil Spor Kulubu
- Varde BK
- Club Billar Castalla
- Mister 100 Lier
- BC Andernosien
- Goztepe Spor Kulubu
- Billiards Café
The winning FC Porto team with its club presidents