At the 2013 Ford World Men's Curling Championship (#2013WMCC and/or #wmcc2013, depending on who's doing the Tweeting) at the Save-On-Foods Memorial Centre in Victoria, British Columbia, Canada, the United States had last-rock advantage but gave up a 10th-end score to the Czech Republic and lost, 9-8, late last night. This dropped the United States to 4-5 and into a tie for eighth in the 14-team tournament that continues through Sunday. With its win, the Czech Republic advanced to 5-4 and created a four-way tie for fourth with China, Norway and Sweden. Canada (7-2), Scotland (7-2) and Denmark (6-3) are atop the standings.
Team USA gets back on the sheet at 11 Central this morning to face Russia, which is 2-7 so far this week. Then, the United States plays Norway at 4 today. And, then, there's a final draw of four matches tonight in which the United States does not participate, and, presumably, that's when we'll know which four rinks advance to the Saturday/Sunday Percy "Pip" Page-inspired playoffs.
The United States advanced to the #2013WMCC/#wmcc2013 from the Americas zone, "given that no challenges in the Americas zone were issued," says (awesome) Wikipedia. The U.S. skip is Brady Clark, a 35-year-old born in Grand Forks, N.D. To represent Team USA at the Save-On-Foods Memorial Centre this week, Clark's rink beat the rinks skipped by that dude with the hat from the 2010 Olympics and the Bemidji, Minn., pizza mogul who led the United States to bronze in the 2006 Olympics, en route to winning the 2013 U.S. Men's Curling Championship in Green Bay a couple of months ago. Clark's rink is from Seattle's storied Granite Curling Club.
Great, great stuff from the Toronto Star on how things at the Save-On-Foods relate to Sochi.
ReplyDeleteSo are we still doing that dumb thing where we just send whichever team wins our championship, instead of sending an all-star team?
ReplyDeleteI guess. I'm not sure.
ReplyDelete2-0, Russia, over the United States after one end. Other matches have Sweden playing Denmark (we want Denmark to win), the Czech Repubic playing Japan (we want Japan to win) and Scotland playing China (we want Scotland to win).
ReplyDelete2-2 through three ends!
ReplyDeleteChina and Sweden losing (good) and Czech Republic winning (bad).
ReplyDelete3-2, Russia, through four ends ...
ReplyDeleteU! S! A! 4-3 through five!
ReplyDeleteRussia scores one in the sixth, so we're tied at 4 with four ends to play at the Save-On-Foods!
ReplyDeleteFour-loss Sweden trails, 2-5, to Denmark; four-loss Czech Republic and China are tied with Japan and Scotland, respectively.
COME ON, USA!
ReplyDeleteJon Wilson @jwcurls48
ReplyDeleteEnd 7 USA with hammer. Center guard, corner guard, come around, hit and stick with first 4 stones. Basic end shaping up.
12:40 PM - 4 Apr 13
It's been a rough last half hour for the U.S. rink at the #2013WMCC. Russia has taken a 5-4 lead through seven ends of its match with the United States. Five-loss Team USA needs to not only win its match but also have some of the teams in the four-loss tie drops theirs. Four-loss Sweden, however, has scored two points in both the sixth and seventh ends of its match with Denmark to take a 6-5 advantage; four-loss China has inched within 5-4 of Scotland, and four-loss Czech Republic is tied, 5-5, with Japan.
ReplyDeleteU! S! A! 5-5 THROUGH EIGHT! RUSSIA HAS HAMMER ROCK IN UPCOMING NINTH OF 10 ENDS!
DeleteAnd Scotland picks up two on four-loss China in their eighth end!
DeleteCzech Republic back ahead by two on Japan, but Sweden back to a tie with Denmark.
DeleteI'm following several Twitter feeds that are following the action from Victoria, but I'm pretty sure that only two of the Tweeters are actually at the event. The rest of us are, instead, just refreshing the Canadian Curling Association's scoreboard. It reminds me of a picture from the 1920s or so that used to be in the Bowling Green Daily News archives of men in suits filling the newspaper parking lot at lunchtime, watching a man on a stepladder updating the score of a World Series game on a chalkboard.
ReplyDeleteCOME ON, USA! ONE TIME, BABY! ONE TIME!
ReplyDeleteTerry Kolesar @terry_usacurl 9m
ReplyDeleteRUS skip throws the dynamite to bust up circle of 5 stones in four-foot. Leaves RUS with two on the button.
1:34 PM - 4 Apr 13
Jon Wilson @jwcurls48 7m
Russia sitting 1 and 3. Brady sitting good in front of Russia stones. Russia discussing.will try draw for 2.
1:36 PM - 4 Apr 13
Terry Kolesar @terry_usacurl 5m
Thanks to Brady's final draw, RUS does not get the deuce. RUS skip comes up short. RUS 6, USA 5 after 9
1:37 PM - 4 Apr 13
steve lundeen @seattlecurler 4m
down 1, with hammer, coming home in the 10th. these are the notes on brady's piano. let's go, #teamUSA! #2013wmcc
1:38 PM - 4 Apr 13
ARRRRRRRRRRGH!
ReplyDeleteTerry Kolesar @terry_usacurl 17s
Brady is heavy with his draw and RUS wins.
1:54 PM - 4 Apr 13
What a debacle.
ReplyDeleteScotland, Sweden, Denmark and Canada play this weekend for the championship.
ReplyDeleteAnd Sweden wins! In Canada's backyard!
ReplyDeleteMeanwhile, also in Canada's backyard, the United States has reclaimed the International Ice Hockey Federation Women's World Championship. Champs in 2005, 2008, 2009 and 2011, Team USA lost the title to Canada in the 2012 tournament played in Burlington, Vt. On Tuesday, however, the United States came from behind to beat Canada, 3-2, in Ottawa, Ontario. The big stars were Brianna Decker and Amanda Kessel, a couple of 22-year-olds from Wisconsin. (That means they were born in 1991!)
ReplyDeleteIncidentally, the "video coach" of Team USA is Bret Hedican, who was my favorite Carolina Hurricane back when we lived in Cary and is the husband of Kristi Yamaguchi, the gold-medal figure skater at the 1992 Albertville Olympics and 2008 Dancing with the Stars celebrity champ!