Van den Berg Wins A Classic
NICK van den Berg fought back from 4-2 down to win an epic singles encounter 5-4 against Earl Strickland.
It leaves Europe on the hill and one point away from winning the 2006 PartyPoker.com Mosconi Cup for the first time since 2002.
In front of a very noisy home crowd, van den Berg won the lag and his soft break downed the wing ball and set up the one nicely. From there he composed himself and cleared to take the early lead.
Strickland then broke and ran through the second without any problems to make it 1-1.
A great shot from van den Berg saw him play the cue ball off of three rails to go from one to two at the start of the third rack.
However, van den Berg then missed the 2-ball and that was the opportunity The Pearl needed to go 2-1 ahead and with the break in the next looked to be the betting favourite to clinch the point.
Strickland made no mistakes in the fourth and at 3-1 had a comfortable lead, in this race to five.
All van den Berg could do is win the racks where he breaks and hope for a mistake and he did his part as he ran through the fifth but still trailed 3-2.
Strickland became involved in running arguments with members of the crowd in the sixth and when someone shouted at him to "shut up" he sat down in his chair and temporarily refused to play.
Referee Michaela Tabb asked the crowd to refrain from shouting out anything during a shot and warned spectators they could be thrown out of the arena if they persisted. Strickland moved back to the table and managed to compose himself enough to move to the hill at 4-2 ahead.
Van den Berg took the next as the scoreline ticked over to 3-4 but would be sitting in his chair hoping that he had not played his last shot in this year's Mosconi Cup.
Strickland had no shot on the 2-ball so van den Berg was back at the table but had a difficult shot as the cue ball was left tucked behind the 8-ball.
Van den Berg hit the 2-ball but the cue ball cannoned off into the pocket and with ball in hand Strickland should have made it 11-11.
But the tournament has produced so much excitement and this match was no different as he failed to convert the green six and then left the same ball over the pocket after van den Berg had played a fine safety.
The Dutchman pocketed the last four balls he needed to make it the second successive hill-hill match in the 2006 Mosconi Cup.
A fine positional shot going from the one to the two gave van den Berg a chance. With Strickland showing some rare sportsmanship by applauding every effort, van den Berg cleared the rest of the table for a memorable win.
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