Sunday, February 22, 2009

Day 2 at the Worlds - a bad day for favourites

It was a bad day for the favoured sides, though the in form team, Germany, kept winning. They may have used a whole week's worth of good fortune in scoring four in the final end to overcome a two point deficit to beat USA 10-8.

You can review a recap of the game as we reported it live below this post but in short USA played well enough to win, but missed takeouts with their last four stones, gifting Germany a fourth win to stay top of the table.

Scotland finally found their form after struggling painfully in their first two outings. They fell behind 6-2 to Norway at the break, but then scored 7 unanswered points. Norway coach Thoralf Hognestad was in constant motion, jumping up and down, imploring his side to pull their game together but to no avail. If it had been a soccer match he probably would have been banished from the sidelines. It's refreshing to see some animation from a coach. Most have gone to coach stoicism school, and betray no emotion.

Sweden pricked the China bubble, stealing singles in three of the ends in a 6-5 victory, and Italy continued their momentum from their morning win over Canada by swamping Korea 7-1. There was a lengthy delay a the third end when an official incorrectly moved a stone. After much deliberation it was decided to replay the end. Korea, who had given up two singles, were unable to regain their composure, giving up a further three steals before getting on the board.

Tomorrow morning Canada face Switzerland, who are still looking for their first win. The Swiss team has been completely reworked with long-time skip Manfred Bollinger leading a team with very little experience. USA play Korea in a game that will test who can better rebound from frustrating Draw 4 losses. Sweden play Scotland and Norway take on China.

See you online as we live blog the Canadian game. Go to wheelchaircurling.com to see standings and a full results table.

3 comments:

Anonymous said...

looking at the scores and stats, it seems to be a lot of trouble witht he ice and stones. Jin accepted Italy's loss as his to bear, and if he is struggling, so must all skips.

Italy had a fluke in the first end of Canada.s game which allowed a steal, rather than a free draw for threefor Canada.Canada will right the ship today, I am sure.

Anonymous said...

I don't think you can blame the ice & the rocks. Everyone is playing with the same surface & stones. 14 second ice with 4 to 6 feet of curl sounds pretty good to me. Let's face it Canada is not sharp, missing open draws, guards going through the back, etc. Only Ina and Darryl are holding their own. Check the stats. Maybe Jim should let Darryl throw skips rocks and it may be time to let Sonia give it a go. Scotland made similar changes & it seems to be working for them. If the Swiss beat Canada with their brand new team then we better start seriously reconsidering what we are going to do for 2010.

Anonymous said...

logger above has it perfect, look at stats