The top half of the PDC World Cup of Darts begins this evening, with the two World Champions in this section joined by two debutants.
The Netherlands are the defending champions, but for the first time Michael van Gerwen is NOT partnered by Raymond van Barneveld; Barney's imminent retirement and collapse in the rankings has opened the door for bulky speedjobber Jermaine Wattimena to support Mighty Mike as the #4 seed. It's not the easiest fixture for the Machine Gun's debut either as their Round 1 opponents are World Cup upset specialists Spain, again consisting of Balearic battler Toni Alcinas and Canarian compatriot Cristo Reyes.
The top seed is England, thanks to charisma vacuum Rob Cross being World #2. Joining him for the first time is Michael Smith, whose 2019 has been poor to say the least; a run to the UK Open semis aside, his TV showings have been inconsistent. As with the Dutch, the English have a concerning opener against the Philippines, with madman Lourence Ilagan and breakthrough talent Noel Malicdem representing the Filipinos for the first time since 2016. The other two seeds see no new faces as #5 seeds Australia, with Simon Whitlock and Kyle Anderson featuring, play Kim Viljanen and Marko Kantele's Finland and #8 seeds Austria, consisting of Mensur Suljovic and Zoran Lerchbacher once more, face Russia who thankfully do not have Aleksandr Oreshkin any more as he has retired.
The non-seed clashes pit China against Darin Young's USA, Dawson Murschell's big head for Canada against Italy, Krzysztof Ratajski's Poland against the Czech Republic and the Republic of Ireland's contrasting characters in mental William O'Connor and calm Steve Lennon face the contrasting figures of Greece's fat man John Michael and skeleton Veniamin Symeonidis.
All first round matches are pairs with the best of 9 legs (first to 5) going through.
Coverage starts from 6:00pm UK time on Sky Sports Action.
>Tonight's matches - Round One (best of 9 legs doubles) China v United States of America Italy v Canada Poland v Czech Republic Republic of Ireland v Greece England (1) v Philippines Austria (8) v Russia Australia (5) v Finland
You're laughing, Italy and China are the two dregs of international darts.
Lucas Hall
Canada ought to beat Italy and the USA ought to beat China imo. All the north american players have more experience playing better players so you should be safe, but darts will likely be the loser of both. The Italy/Canada match last year sticks in the memory because it was that fucking dreadful.
>no thailand with one night in bangkok walk-on song
Jacob Davis
They were a pretty decent duo as well.
Andrew Wood
>englands team is 2 tv chokers State of it
Lincoln Jones
>england >0 brexits
Benjamin Wright
>170 >camera goes down
Carson Moore
>pinoys
Ian Martinez
>35 >blubber
Cooper Rivera
cross giggling retard
Chase Young
Someone fucking eject these whistling cunts
Liam Adams
Love how Smith throws the 3 darts in one fluid motion.
Jayden Martin
Picked Bald and Blub for the title and now that bottom half of the draw has lost Wales and NI I think theyll win it if they beat Autism and co
Brody Cox
>if they win then they will win
Elijah Jackson
Co stompe won't play
Andrew Gray
Smith the GOAT, man doesn't even have to aim.
Joseph Bailey
>diet advert for women during the darts Don't think they've thought this through
Michael King
upset incoming
James Scott
are interviews anything else than players blowing sugar up each others' asses?
Luke Torres
>scott rands walk on song :/
Asher Sullivan
wtf where is Oreshkin
Christian Walker
ah yes, Zoran and Mensur, traditional Austrian names
Asher Flores
>Austria >National sport: Alpine skiing/ice hockey Wtf?
Lucas Ramirez
I was dreading Wales playing well and going on a run, would have been horrid and i think they may have won it. Thank fuck for roidlet having inconsitent partners
Robert Rogers
>Vienna >then Russia the glorious country of Vienna
Next round is two single matches right? and couples if its 1-1
Liam Hughes
Jermaine's English could use work.
Josiah Gutierrez
Yes, "couples" if the singles are split.
Eli Phillips
he's just stupid
Jayden Nguyen
And so that ends the first round.
No upsets tonight but Finland and Russia almost pulled it off, with the former going 3-2 up with a break and ending up collapsing in the decider against Australia, and the latter having Boris Koltsov miss 2 for a 4-1 lead against Austria, who won 4 legs in a row as a result. Both debutants for the big two performed exceptionally well, with Michael Smith a lot better than he has been against a dogged Philippines pairing and Jermaine Wattimena outshining Michael van Gerwen in a whhitewash of Spain.
