By Mark Lamport-Stokes

MONTREAL, Oct1 (Reuters) The Internationals, who outgunned the Americans in world ranking strength, were left to rue their dismal foursomes record after losing the Presidents Cup by 19- points to 14-today.

Despite boasting nine players in the world top 19 at Royal Montreal Golf Club this week, the Internationals won a mere half point out of a possible 11 in the alternate-shot format.

''We got trounced,'' South African Ernie Els told reporters after posting an overall win-loss record of 3-2.

''It's almost like a test match in cricket. You have your sessions and we just had two bad ones. They scored about a thousand runs against us, in the context of a cricket match.

''But I think we did okay '' the world number five added, referring to the seven points out of 12 accumulated by the Internationals in the last-day singles.

''The guys showed a lot of guts and played well. We're 7-5 in today's session and we won both fourball sessions. The only thing, we got trounced in the foursomes session.'' Asked to explain why the Internationals had triumphed only once in the seven editions of the Presidents Cup, Fijian Vijay Singh replied: ''I think they (the US) are very comfortable with us.

COMFORT FACTOR ''We play on the US Tour ands most of our friends are Americans. We play practice rounds with the guys so they are very comfortable with what we do.

''Our game, when we play our best, is better than theirs -- most of theirs, anyway,'' said the former world number one.

''I cannot point a finger on what's going on but I think they are just very comfortable with our presence.'' Els, appearing in his fifth Presidents Cup, felt more flexibility was needed in determining the venues outside the US ''The two that we did well in were way south, you know,'' he said. ''One was in Australia and the other one was in South Africa and you've got to read something into that.'' The only success for the Internationals came in 1998 when the event was staged in Melbourne. In 2003, the two teams battled to a 17-17 draw in South Africa.

''We're the International team and maybe we should have a bit more say in where our home matches will go to,'' Els added.

''You know, maybe that helps.'' The 2009 Presidents Cup will be held in San Francisco with the ninth edition scheduled for Melbourne in 2011.

REUTERS BJRHT0930