Team USA Mosconi Cup Captain: Johan Ruijsink
In the coming days Team USA will head to London to prepare for this year’s Mosconi Cup. Let’s meet the men that will try and do what no US team has done in nearly a decade – hoist the Cup in victory.
The Dutchman took the reins of Team USA in 2017 in an effort to reverse the team’s lengthy victory drought. He’d previously led Team Europe to seven Mosconi Cup victories before retiring in 2014. After a disappointing performance from Team USA last year, Ruijsink did some soul searching before committing to captain Team USA once again.
“The 2017 Mosconi Cup was very disappointing, as far as the result goes,” admitted Ruijsink. “Our team lost heavily and that didn’t feel good at all. I definitely needed time to recuperate from that and make sure to find the causes and the reasons. We practiced and prepared hard. Unfortunately, we didn’t show this in the arena. I am grateful for the trust and hard work of our team, but wasn’t happy with our performance. I certainly want to apologize to the American audience who backed us up all the way and stayed positive. We haven’t been able to meet their expectations as a team.
Ruijsink implemented a new process for choosing the team members this year. He selected an initial squad of 16 players earlier in the year. That initial selection was whittled down to eight players, and then the final five, after a series of training camps held throughout the year.
It’ll be interesting to see if the revised selection process, and the training camps implemented by Ruijsink, will pay dividends for Team USA in London.