Remember when the US was 3-0? It was only 48 hours ago but things have changed a lot since then. A tough Monday saw the US lose 8-5 to Sweden and 9-3 to Canada (two teams that are both now 6-1).
Then on Tuesday the US started off with Russia and a good close match. The US took a 4-3 lead after stealing one in the sixth end and after a Russian deuce evened it at 5-5 in the eighth. Russia did take the lead 6-5 but the US was in position in the tenth end with the hammer to either win the match or send it to an extra end. Instead they allowed Russia to steal another deuce to grab the 8-5 win. Russia is now 5-2 after seven matches.
To end the day the US took on Switzerland and fell behind 6-0 after a disastrous first four ends. The Swiss never held the hammer but scored two in ends one and four and singles in between. The US rebounded to close to 7-6 going into the final end but couldn’t complete the comeback. The Swiss are the third team to sit at 6-1, it was a brutal stretch in the schedule and the US couldn’t get a win in there.
So now the US sits in seventh at 3-4 with four matches left. Only the top four advance to the playoffs so the US would need to catch all of those teams currently two games ahead. Looking at the US schedule remaining it’s probably doable to go 4-0. The Czech Republic and Latvia, tomorrow’s opponents, are both 1-6 while the US faces Scotland (2-5) and Korea (5-2) on the final day.
The question is whether those there 5-2 teams will lose a couple games the rest of the way. Korea obviously still faces the US and also has Canada still to come. China and Russia still face each other with China also facing Canada and Sweden. Russia also faces Switzerland. If the 6-1 teams (Canada, Sweden, Switzerland) all win their matchups against the 5-2 teams and the US wins out the only other result the US would need is China defeating Russia. It’s certainly not the wildest scenario to see the US in a tiebreaker.
But it won’t happen unless the US plays better tomorrow against the Czech Republic and Latvia. All they can do is do their part and hope for some results in other matches that go their way.
Schedule:
- March 19th
- 8:30 AM ET – USA vs. Czech Republic
- 6:30 PM ET – USA vs. Latvia
