Finland, Poland surge to World Cup of Pool Finals

The 2012 World Cup of Pool will crown a new winner. This was assured when Finland and Poland qualified for the Finals, which will be held late Sunday afternoon. Since its inaugural staging in 2006, the World Cup of Pool trophy has only found its way home to four countries. The Philippines and China have both won it twice with Germany and the United States of America winning once. Finland was the first to qualify for the Finals, dispatching the American duo composed of Shane van Boening and Rodney Morris, 9-7. The Americans started the match very well as they built an early 5-2 bubble over Finland. They were leading late into the match 7-5 until veteran Mika Immonen and youngster Petri Makkonen mounted a furious rally. It all started in Rack 13 when the veteran recued Makkonen after the latter miscalculated on his preparation for a shot on the 7-ball. Immonen made a very difficult cut to sink the 7-ball to start their run. Finland tied the game at 7-all and Immonen broke that tie when he fluked a 9-ball. Rack 16 did not start well for Finland as their break was deemed a foul. Van Boening scored on a difficult jump shot to pocket the 2-ball and Morris followed it up with a difficult bank shot to pocket the three. The Americans appeared to be on their way to forcing a hill-hill match but Morris missed an easy 6-ball, which was all Finland needed to book their second trip to the World Cup of Pool finals. A few minutes after, Poland arranged the all-European final as they edged out Chinese-Taipei. Karol Skowerski and Wojciech Szewcyk displayed tremendous pocketing skills as they raced to a 5-0 lead off the gates. In that span, they only committed a single unforced error, which spoke volumes of the extraordinary poise that the young Polish players have. Han En Hsu and Hsin Ting Chen stopped the barrage as they managed to win two racks straight, but Poland countered with another 3-0 run. The Polish duo appeared to be on their way to winning the match as they pocketed three balls of the break in the 11th rack but they failed to capitalize. Chinese Taipei gained some momentum and looked like they were about to mount a serious comeback but they tragically scratched the cue ball while pocketing the 5-ball in Rack 13 to hand the victory to Poland. - AMD, GMA News