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World Cup Announces Lineups
Aug 15, 2012, 6:41 AM

Van Boening (left) and Morris lifted the hardware four years ago in Rotterdam. (Photo courtesy Matchroom Sport)

The only Americans to win the PartyPoker.net World Cup of Pool will be reuniting for a second chance at glory. Rodney Morris and Shane Van Boening — who won the title in 2008 and advanced to the quarterfinals the next year — have not paired up in this event since that elimination three years ago. But when the World Cup makes a return to the Manila next month in the two-player team event, they'll be in contention from the start. The event, backed by Matchroom Sport, will run Sept. 4-9 at Robinsons Place Mall in Ermita.

There are a total of 32 teams competing with 31 nations represented — the Philippines, as host, has two sides in the event. Defending champions Germany, with Ralf Souquet and Thorsten Hohmann, will attempt to become the first team ever to defend the title. Once again the total prize fund is $250,000, with $60,000 split by the eventual champions.

This year’s teams are (with seeding in parentheses):

Europe:
Austria (12) – Albin Ouschan & Mario He
Belgium – Serge Das & Cliff Castelmein
Croatia – Karlo Dalmatin & Philipp Stojanovic
England (3) – Chris Melling & Darren Appleton
Finland (16) – Mika Immonen & Petri Makkonen
Germany (1) – Ralf Souquet & Thorsten Hohmann
Holland (7) – Nick Van den Berg & Huidji See
Hungary – Miko Balázs & Gabor Solymosi
Italy (15) – Bruno Muratore & Fabio Petroni
Poland (10) – Karol Skowerski & Wojciech Szewcyk
Russia – Konstantin Stepanov & Vitaly Pavlukhin
Serbia – Andrea Klasovic & Zoran Svilar
Spain (13) – David Alcaide & Francisco Diaz Pizarro
Sweden – Marcus Chamat & Andreas Gerwen
Switzerland – Dimitri Jungo & Ronni Regli

Asia:
China (4) – Liu Haitao & Lee Hewen
Chinese Taipei (6) – Han En Hsu & Hsin Ting Chen
Hong Kong – Lee Chenman & Kenny Kwok
India – Raj Hundal & Amar Kang
Indonesia - Roy Apancho & Muhammad Bewi Simanjuntak
Japan (11) – Naoyuki Oi & Satoshi Kawabata
Korea – Ryu Seung Woo & Lee Wan Su
Malaysia – Patrick Ooi Fook Yuen & Ibrahim Bin Amir
Philippines A (2) – Dennis Orcollo & Lee Vann Corteza
Philippines B (8) – Efren Reyes & Francisco Bustamante
Singapore – Aloysius Yapp & Chan Keng Kwang
Thailand (14) - Nitiwat Kanjanasri & Kobkit Palajin
Vietnam – Nguyen Anh Tuan & Do The Kien

Rest of the World:
Australia – Dave Reljic & Ian Barber
Canada (9) – Alex Pagulayan & John Morra
Kuwait – Abdullah Al Yousef & Omar Al Shaheen
USA (5) – Shane Van Boening & Rodney Morris