What a finish! But let’s start at the beginning…USA II began Thursday by drilling Pakistan. Zia thought this might happen so he opted out of playing against his countrymen and old friends. As a result of collecting 25 Victory Points (out of 25) against Pakistan, USA II finally broke into the top five teams. With raised hopes, USA II entered match two against Chinese Taipei only to be beaten 32-15 giving USA II only 11 Victory Points.
Still in the top five, USA II sent in their front line against Italy. Labeled “The Match of the Day” there were over 7,000 onlookers (kibitzers) watching this match on BBO. USA II got off to an early lead against Italy and kept the petal to the metal (as Meckstroth would say) finishing the match ahead 28-4. This was a key match for USA II due to the carry over given in the Knockout Round. If the two teams should meet in the KO portion of this event, then USA II will start off against Italy with a lead.
The carry over will be half or one-third of the IMP different in the match depending on which position the two team finished in the round robin ranking. If Italy finished ahead of USA II, then USA II will have an eight-point lead to start the match (1/3 of the imp difference). However, if USA II finishes ahead of Italy in the round robin ranking, then USA II will have a twelve-imp lead to start the match (1/2 of the imp difference).
At the end of the day…USA II is now 2.25 Victory points out of second place. Remember – strategy wise - USA II would like to be in the top three. Norway is leading the pack and is 21.25 Victory Points ahead of USA II. This is a wide gap and it will be difficult to catch Norway; however, second and third position is well within site.
In today’s matches, USA II plays Australia, Argentina and Egypt. Of the three matches, only Argentina has a hope of qualifying. This is USA II’s second match of the day and will be shown on BBO starting at 12:30 Dallas time. You can follow the other two matches with the Running Scores found on the WBF website at
http://www.worldbridge.org/tourn/SaoPaulo.09/Results.htm.
When you click on “Bermuda Bowl” under running scores, click on the table number beside USA II’s match and it will take you to the scorecard for the match. (You can also find the running results on Swan Games; however, their site was down yesterday.)
Other USA Results
In the Bermuda Bowl, it is still mathematically possible for USA I to qualify but highly unlikely.
In the Venice Cup, USA I and USA II are third and fourth, respectively. These two teams just want to ensure that they do not finish in postions four and five because this will result in them playing one another in the quarterfinals. It looks as though USA I has a lock on the third position so this is unlikely to happen.
In the Senior Bowl, USA II is in third while USA I is in 7th. USA II is a lock to qualify at this point and it is looking really good for USA I holding a 22 point cushion between them and 9th place.
