USA keep World Cup hopes alive in Holland
SIXTH seeds USA defeated Croatia in the latest second round match.
Like Germany, who had scraped a win over Poland earlier in the session, USA were not at their best but still did alive to secure a victory and move into the quarter-finals.
The winning margin was 8-5 and the USA will now play Austria in the quarter-final, the third time in the competition that they would have faced an unseeded team.
America had overcome Iceland in routine fashion in their first match but Croatia had pulled off the best recovery so far as they fought back from 7-2 down to defeat Spain 8-7.
Croatia's Ivica Putnik beat USA's Shane van Boening in the lag but Croatia produced a dry break.
The crucial moment in the opener came when Putnik potted the pink 4 but the cue ball hit the knuckle of the right side pocket and then disappeared into the left side pocket as America went one up.
The Europeans instantly levelled after Van Boening scratched on the break and Philipp Stojanovic made a good pot on the 9-ball after Putnik had left him with a difficult shot after underhitting his previous positional effort.
A Putnik scratch helped put USA back in front before a lucky fluke on the 2-ball from Van Boening led to it becoming 3-1.
Both sides won one of the next two for 4-2 before Croatia had some bad luck when a 7-8 combination worked but the 7-ball ended up tight behind the 9-ball. Putnik opted for power but left it on and it was 5-2.
A missed one from Putnik saw it move to 6-2 and seconds later it was 7-2 thanks to a golden break from Morris.
Croatia had already fought back once in this tournament from 7-2 behind and they would have to do so again.
They made a bright start as a double kiss on the green six from van Boening led to Croatia taking the tenth for 7-3 before the same player missed the same ball in the next and the scoreline now showed 7-4. The fightback seemed on when Croatia won the 12th but America ended the resistance by winning the 13th to seal the match.
