Day 2 began with USA starting with a 5-3 lead. The first match would be Woman vs Man with Korea's Bora Jung taking on THe Scorpion Johnny Archer. Bora , after a time out called from Captain Jeong for some advice, won the first game to put some heat on Archer, but the consistent Archer stayed consistent and won the next 3 games. This put the USA at 6-3 and it looked like it was going to be a short day for the MBC ESPN crew. That was until Korea's Seung Woo Ryu had something else in mind. Archer was to go again in back to back matches as #1 player from USA plays against #1 from Korea which was Ryu. Archer had the chance for first blood as he had an almost impossible to miss 8 to the 9 combo. Incredibly the 9 Ball wobbled and left Ryu an easy first game. Ryu then made a break and run to take a 2-0 lead. Archer did his best to come back but Ryu held his break for a 4-2 win and Ryu exclaimed "Okay!" as he made position for the winning shot.
With the score at 6-4, Korea began its comeback march. The 4-on-4 scotch match was next and after 2 time outs called by USA Captain Archer and 1 more called by Jeong for Korea, this time it went hill-hill. The final game had USA breaking and in the middle of run out Archer made a tricky 5 ball to play position for the 6 ball only to over hit slightly hooking Williams for the next shot. Williams made a finesse kick shot to play safety and left Jeong a tough cut shot. But Jeong came with it and then gave Ryu an easy poistion shot and left Jung a relatively easy 8 ball with the 9 ball laying by the side. But she missed to the gasp of the audience but then left no easy shot on the 8 ball as it hung by the jaws of one side of the side pocket, but just where the cue ball was at there was no open shot except for a kick. With all the time outs and extensions exhausted for Team USA, it was "The Dazzler" Tina Meraglio's shot and Archer, Morris, and Williams quickly debated on where to kick either one rail or 2 rails. The short committee decided 2 rails and Morris quickly directed her where to aim and how and Tina sent it off and the cue ball went one, two, then 3 rails only to miss the 8 ball by an inch to make it. Korea took ball in hand and the victory gift to make the score 6-5.
Next came doubles match with Tina "Dazzler" Meraglio and The Korean Dragon against 2 Korean men Jeong and Kim. The USA duo won the first game, but the Koreans played well to take the next 3 games to tie the score 6-6. The session went to a dinner break with the USA needing to regroup and strategize for the final 5 matches.
The Koreans were looking to take the lead and their hopes fell on the young shoulders of 20 year old #1 Ryu and women's top rookie Jung. But they would be facing the very formidable team of Williams and Morris. But just as they did the day before, the Korean man and woman pair played perfectly in sync and took a 2-0 lead over the USA men to put them on the hill and within one game of putting Korea in the lead. But the Rocket & the Dragon kept their cool and waited for their chance. While Jung came with all the right shots, it was Ryu who faltered making 3 unforced errors and misses to let USA back in the game and Morris and Williams won three in a row to win 3-2 and stopped Korea's momentum with USA 7 and Korea now 6.
It would be all singles matches now, with each team putting their line up from a fresh start in any order. USA put up their order as Archer, Morris, and Williams at the end if needed, and Korea put up Jeong, Ryu, and Kim . The Scorpion was out for revenge this time and took out Jeong quickly 3-0. USA 8 to Korea 6.
Korea's back to the wall now, it needed Ryu to try again to stop the Rocket from blasting USA into another international victory. Could the young Ryu be the first player to win against Morris, who is thus far undefeated lifetime in interntational team singles match play? Morris wins game 1. Ryu wins game 2. Morris wins game 3, putting him on the hill. In day 1, Morris finished Ryu off with a 9 on the break the final game, and the Rocket felt like a history review was needed as he smashed the final rack and a ball rocketed a kiss into the 9 Ball for the corner and for another USA win!
Even though it was a loss, the Koreans showed alot of heart taking on the Americans and giving them a close run for the money. Final score USA 9 to Korea 6.
The matches will be airing for the next 8 weeks on Korea's #1 channel MBC ESPN.
The next event on the Brunswick Korea Pro Pool Tour will be The KPT Championships Nov 3-6,2005 with $10,000 1st place pay out.
Dragon Promotions has donated the shirts worn by Team USA to the AzBilliards Katrina Relief Auction and you can bid on these signed shirts here.
