Las Vegas Weekly

April 18, 2010 · 10:37 AM

Team USA needs high noon miracle to defend PBR World Cup title

By Robin Leach

The 2010 PBR World Cup at Thomas & Mack Center on April 16, 2010.

Photo: Tom Donoghue/www.donoghuephotography.com

Team USA continued to struggle last night in the Professional Bull Riders World Cup, while the riders from Team Brazil increased their lead. It will take a high noon miracle at Thomas & Mack Center today in the two final riding rounds for the Americans to pull off a win and defend the title they’ve held for the past two years.

By 3 p.m., the $100,000 winning team will be handed the prestigious World Cup, and then the battered, bruised and beaten bronco busters will race down to the nearby MGM Grand Garden Arena to watch the Academy of Country Music Awards airing tonight on CBS. They might be glad to sit in a seat that doesn’t move because they didn’t tame the beasts last night. In fact, the bulls broke them!

Brazil has 888 points from the first four rounds of rides, and Team USA is far back with 523 points, but in second, moving up from third after the first day of two rides. Three of the Brazilian riders successfully completed both sets of rides last night.

Our Ryan McConnel was toppled in just 3 seconds, and because he didn't make the 8-second time, he didn’t get a score from the judges. Top world rider Austin Meier, who was interviewed by Senior Editor John Katsilometes for The Kats Report on Las Vegas Sun, was the only American to complete his two rides.

Australia and Mexico are bunched in the middle, and Team Canada is in last place. Canadian rider Aaron Roy will be unable to compete today after sustaining a possible fractured cheekbone from the horns of one angry bull, and Ben Jones of Team Australia suffered a concussion after being kicked in the head.

In the noontime showdown, if each of the five American riders masters his bull and all the Brazilian riders fail, then incredibly America could win its third consecutive cup and title. But at this moment, with all the riders admitting that the bulls are the meanest, angriest and rankest they’ve ever ridden, it looks this time around as if Las Vegas favorite Guilherme Marchi, the 2008 PBR world champion, will be the one to hoist the cup head high as the American riders look forlornly down at the dirt.

This is the first time the PBR World Cup has been held in the United States. Check back to Vegas DeLuxe tomorrow for our wrap-up report on the 2010 PBR World Cup and photographs from contributing photographer Tom Donoghue.

Robin Leach has been a journalist for more than 50 years and has spent the past decade giving readers the inside scoop on Las Vegas, the world’s premier platinum playground.

Follow Robin Leach on Twitter at Twitter.com/Robin_Leach.

Follow Vegas DeLuxe on Twitter at Twitter.com/vegasdeluxe.

Follow VDLX Editor Don Chareunsy on Twitter at Twitter.com/VDLXEditorDon.

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