Well, yesterday was USA II’s toughest day and they came through with flying colors. As you remember, we play Germany, Netherlands and China. All in the hunt to qualify. The team got off to a great start against Germany bidding two slams that were not bid at the other table. Unfortunately, our end game was not so good and the Germans won the match 25-36 giving us only13 Victory Points (out of a possible 25). This result tied for the worst match to date with the match against Chile.
After the lunch break, USA II rebouded and headed into matches two and three (against tougher opponents). The team shined in these two match beating Netherlands 40-30 for 17 Victory Points and China 33-11 for 20 victory points. Ending the day in fourth position up from 7th. Team USA II is not 26 Victory Points out of 9th place. Remember only eight teams qualify for the Knock Out Rounds.
All-in-all, the pairs are playing their “A” games and phyched to pull up a spot or two in today’s matches against Pakistan, Chinese Taipei and Italy. Even thought the initial goal is to be in the top eight teams on Saturday night, strategy wise, USA II would rather be any position other than fourth. The way the seading works for the Knock Out Rounds is that the top four finishers get to pick from among the bottom four finishers. So the team in first place gets first choice, then second, then third…which means the team in fourth position has a default position. Now if USA II ends up in the bottom four, we will be the last picked since noone wants to play the Mighty Team USA!
USA II’s first two matches will not be on BBO so you will have to follow the running scores. The last match of the day against Italy, however, will be on BBO starting at 3:20 Dallas Time. Cancel your appointments and be in front of your computer ready to cheer the team to victory! All matches are important, but the match against Italy is particular important because we are likely to meet Italy in the Knock Out Round and there is carry over from the match today.
FYI: It is much easier to watch the BBO matches is you use the Web version of BBO to watch vugraph. Go to www.bridgebase.com and click on “Play Bridge Now”. This will take you to the webbased version of BBO (Mac Users you are already doing this) and you can see the ongoing match and also see what is happening in the other room and other matches much easier than on the PC version of BBO.
Some of you may have noticed a new link under the “Cross Table By Rank” link which is called “Butler Scores.” These scores are a ranking of how each pair compares to all of the other pairs in the individual matches. Since everyone is playing the same boards, the organizers prepare a cross match comparison of each pair. After 9 matches, our pairs are 7th (Hamman & Zia), 12th (Meckstroth & Rodwell) and 39th (Katz & Nickell). Not much weight can be put on the Butler Score since it does not take into account the strength of the opposition when comparing results. However, it is a fun to follow and makes for good dinner conversation.
Other USA Team Results
In the Bermuda Bowl USA I is currently in 16th place and will need to win 20 out of 25 Victory Points in their remaining matches to qualify. This task is virtually impossible for even the best of teams. The team members are playing hard but looking ahead to the Transnational Teams which begin next week.
In both the Venice Cup and the Senior Bowl, all four teams are in qualifying positions – although our senior teams are right on the cusp. They are in good spirits and have medium to soft teams remaining on their schedules so they should be in good shape.
Have a great day and remember to log onto BBO at 3:20 Dallas time to watch the match of the day – USA II vs. Italy!
