Anyone who's watched men's curling so far this Olympics knows what an up-and-down ride it's been.
Beat the defending Gold Medalists Norway 11-5.
Lost to Finland 4-3.
Beat New Zealand handily.
Lost to Italy, a team who only qualified because they're the host country, 6-5.
Beat Sweden, easily one of the three best teams (with Norway & Canada) 10-6.
Can't really take the madness anymore. The Finland loss still stings since it was on the very last stone of the game. And the Italy loss hurts even more, because they are a team who is admittedly just happy to be there and getting some recognition for their country. We're a team with a legitimate shot at a medal, and we lose to Italy? How does that happen?
There are a lot of reasons for this crazy first 5 games, but the one that sticks out more than any other is our third, Sean Rojeski. He's barely hitting an 70% accuracy mark. Anytime there is a big shot needed to be made, he misses like he shot with his eyes closed. If we have an alternate, I think we could be much better with him in there over Rojeski.
This isn't to take the blame off Pete Fenson, our skip, who isn't doing much better, but at least when it matters he hits the big shot, and has won us quite a few points.
All in all, it's been interesting so far. 4 games left in the round robin. A 3-1 record should get the USA into the medal round. They can do it, but I'm not sure if they will. This is a team that could very easily be 5-0 right now. They've beaten two of the top three teams in the world by convincing margins, but they've struggled in all 5 games so far. It doesn't help that we still have Canada on our schedule, as the last game of our Round Robin. I hope we don't go into that needing a victory, or things could get ugly.
As for hockey, real quick, a tie with Latvia doesn't bode well for our future. If we don't beat Kaz convincingly today, things are going to turn sour real quick. As for Slovakia, a buddy has predicted (before the tourney started) that they'd shock the world and win the Gold. After yesterday, I now think its a definite possibility.
More Olympics tomorrow.
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2 comments:
Dude, I was watching an intense curling match b/w the ladies of the USA and Russia. It also helped that both captains are SMOKING hot.
Almost makes me want to abandon my dreams of conquering music, move to Minnesota, and start thinking about Canada 2010...
You could totally make that woman's team usa for 2010.
I'm definitely starting a curling team soon, so I can make the 2010 olympics. Except I'm incorporating heavy-drinking into it, because I think that's the way the sport was meant to be played.
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