Finland, Poland to meet in the World Cup of Pool finals

MANILA, Philippines—After showing Philippines-B the door Saturday night, Finland just continued its impressive showing en route to the finals with a 9-7 nipping of United States in the 2012 Partypoker.net World Cup of Pool Sunday afternoon.

Finns Mika Immonen and Petri Makkonen leaned on a late rally against Americans Shane van Boening and Rodney Morris, needing two straight racks to even the game before scoring another two to seal the victory.

“We hung in there. We don’t make little mistakes get to us,” said world champion Immonen. “We analyze it and then brush it off and move on. But in the finals we have to play more solid.”

Finland even started at a 2-5 deficit as United States completed another run out after pouncing on a foul by Immonen in the seventh rack.

But Immonen and Makkonen, who stunned the crowd by defeating Efren “Bata” Reyes and Francisco “Django” Bustamante to earn the semifinals spot, just systematically came back.

Finland faces Poland, which dumped Chinese-Taipei in the other semifinals match, in the championship round happening later at Robinsons Ermita in Manila.

The Polish duo of Wojciech Szewcyk and Karol Skowerski dominated Taiwanese Han En Hsu and Hsin Ting Chen, 9-4, to arrange the finals with Finland.

Three straight breaks and run-outs were the key in Poland’s convincing victory, then yielding two more racks to Taiwan before securing the ticket to the finals.

Finals match of the $250, 000 event starts at 6 p.m. at the same venue in Manila.