Michael van Gerwen has qualified for the fifth time in his career on Monday for the final of the World Cup darts in London. The Brabant defender defeated Nathan Aspinall 6-3 in the semi-finals.
Van Gerwen, the number one in the world, played a mixed game against Aspinall, the global number twelve. He found the triples difficult, but could afford it because his opponent did not know how to take advantage of his carelessness.
‘Mighty Mike’ takes on Wednesday night on New Year’s Eve in the final against Peter Wright, who, after a heated match at the expense of Gerwyn Price (6-3), reached the World Cup for the second time in his career. .
Van Gerwen and Wright faced each other once in 2014 in the final of the World Cup. Van Gerwen then prevailed with 7-4 and thus won his first of a total of three world titles (later in 2017 and therefore last year).
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Michael van Gerwen clenches his fist after a won leg against Nathan Aspinall. (Photo: PDC / Lawrence Lustig)
Van Gerwen boosts scoring power in the fifth set
Van Gerwen initially came but not in his game against Aspinall. He threw a striking number of arrows outside the 20s and 19s, so that he could not leave his mark and Aspinall could hope for a stunt.
De Vlijmenaar always took the lead in sets, but in the first instance he did not always double the margin, which made it equal to 2-2 and Aspinall had the advantage with that because he was allowed to start the odd sets.
Van Gerwen, however, slightly boosted his scoring ability in the fifth set. Aspinall, who by no means reached his normal level, was unable to keep up, so that the gap was finally beaten in favor of Van Gerwen.
The glutton was 4-2, Aspinall saw it coming back to 4-3, but after he had brought the difference back to two sets with the greatest possible effort (5-3), Aspinall’s resistance was definitively broken.
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