Immonen maintains two-point lead
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MIKA Immonen maintained Europe's two-rack advantage thanks to a whitewash 5-0 victory over Earl Strickland in the last match of the session.
Europe started the day 3-1 ahead and now lead 5-3 in the race to 11 in the 2008 PartyPoker.com Mosconi Cup.
"I really needed to dig deep in this match," said Immonen. "I lost the doubles match with Mark Gray and made some mistakes. I really think I was responsible for the last loss so I had to rise the occasion.
"You definitely hear the noise of the crowd and it's pretty intense but that's what makes the Mosconi Cup such a great tournament.
"I know I made some tricky outs so luck did not play any part with it. He (Strickland) says I got lucky but maybe if I beat him 15 times in a row is it really luck.
"I like playing him and ironically he is one of my idols. It's an honour to play him.
"We were even for tonight and if we're even every day then we will win the cup by two points. This is still a great finish for the day.
"We're here as a team so I expect all of us will do something crazy if we win."
The other results saw World Cup of Pool Champions Rodney Morris and Shane Van Boening suffer their second defeat of the tournament.
On Thursday they led 3-1 before losing 5-3 to Ralf Souquet and Niels Feijen and history repeated itself as the Europeans edged their side 4-1 ahead.
The next match was a mouth-watering singles tie between home hope Tony Drago and the controversial but hugely talented Earl Strickland.
It did not disappoint as these two men showed why they are two of the quickest players in world pool.
Most racks were completed at a very rapid pace and Drago looked to be on the verge of winning as he was 4-1 ahead. However, a foul where he failed to hit the 2-ball in the sixth proved to be the turning point as Strickland claimed the next four to snatch a 5-4 victory.
America won the next match as well as Johnny Archer and Jeremy Jones clinched a 5-1 triumph over Mika Immonen and Mark Gray.
The last match was down to the captains to pick who to play and Immonen got the European nod, while Strickland was America's selection.
It ended 5-0 to Immonen as Europe go into the third day leading by 5-3, but still well short of the 11 victory total.
However, USA player Johnny Archer insisted there was plenty of twists and turns still to come.
He said: "We've got a lot of fight, just like the Europeans last year. It's going to come down to the end so the fans are going to be watching something really good."
