2014 Men's World Curling Championships
As we say bye bye and congratulations to the giggling Swiss women - it's over to the men!
wmcc2014.curlingevents.com
http://wmcc2014.curlingevents.com/schedule
Rubbish time differences with it being in China, but at least the SCO/CAN youtube game is on in the morning.
Some games on Eurosport - but only the main channel confirmed. No news of what's on player. Also no indication if there is youtube blocking here, or whether games not shown live on E/S will be available on youtube.
All very messy, a bit like a pair of Norwegian Pants.
wmcc2014.curlingevents.com
http://wmcc2014.curlingevents.com/schedule
Rubbish time differences with it being in China, but at least the SCO/CAN youtube game is on in the morning.
Some games on Eurosport - but only the main channel confirmed. No news of what's on player. Also no indication if there is youtube blocking here, or whether games not shown live on E/S will be available on youtube.
All very messy, a bit like a pair of Norwegian Pants.
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Comments
I suppose Simmons from Canada will be the favourite; Ulstrud will want a big tournament after missing an Olympic medal and the Swiss, Swedes, Danes and China (after a great Olympics and on home ice) will all be looking to medal.
I have absolutely no idea what to expect from Scotland here. We knew Kerry Barr would be stepping up a level and might struggle for wins, but Ewen Macdonald has plenty of experience (he's even skipped Team Ulsrud to a Norwegian championship) so this is a challenge he's capable of taking on. I guess he'll be disappointed if he doesn't make the play-offs.
SCO lost to SWE 8 - - 4 and lie 0 - 1
Not going well for the Scottish men - they lost to China early this morning albeit in a close game and are now 6-2 down to Japan with 3 ends to go.
Currently bottom of the table. The only good news is that this has no implications for the future - as there are no Olympics qualification points at stake this year and qualification for next years worlds is dependent on performance at the Europeans.
Still they may turn it around!
Sadly they lost to Denmark earlier 7-6 - and now sit bottom of the table (well its done in alphabetical order!) at 1 win to 4 losses. So they basically have no chance of a play off place now given they still have to play Canada and Norway.
Just hope they win a few more matches - as after the performance of the women the decision to exclude our Olympians from the Scottish championships will have looked like a very bad one by the RCCC.
It was a pretty bad decision anyway, but I thought at least for the men's there was more strength below our top team than the women's. Apparantly not, so I hope the RCCC will look at this and note that Scottish Curling Isn't As Good As They Thought It Was and will spend some time and money improving those rinks behind Brewsdoch/Muirhead.
So are the performances of Team Barr and Team Macdonald at their respective World Championships a vindication or an indictment of the elite group selection process? ;-) Are they also scheduled to represent Scotland at the European Championships as is usually the case as Scottish Champions?
Speaking of strength in depth, Team Muirhead lost to the third string Swiss team in the final of the Prairie Showdown in Alberta.
To be fair, the Swiss women have (at least?) three rinks that could give anyone a game, and other than Canada they are probably the strongest nation depth-wise. They won the world's and Ott was nowhere near!
I believe the majority of Swiss players also have full-time jobs which makes their achievements even more impressive. That's why questions of Dave Murdoch retiring were nonsense as it would mean he'd have to get a proper job. ;-) Thomas Ulsrud said after the Olympics that his team (2 of whom also work full-time) received a twentieth of the financial support Scotland/GB receive.
Norway, Canada, Switzerland are the top 3 ATM.
Their final 3 matches are against Norway, Canada and Russia – so I can only see one more win for them. Russia are currently propping up the table – so if Scotland don’t beat them they could well finish 12 and last.
Quite a come down from Sochi.
It will be interesting to see who is picked for the Europeans for Scotland at the end of the year – as that determines qualification for next years worlds. Tradition says it’s the Scottish champions – but methinks after what has happened over the last two weeks Muirhead and Murdoch/Brewster may be drafted in.
Or the senario could (but won't!) be Scotland relegated and replaced by England @ the Euros, never mind points for the worlds! (I think McDonald's rink is good enough to get top 4 @ Euros, but anything can happen...)
Basically, where will Brewster and Murdoch be come August/September? Still together? Murdoch leaving and possibly joining McDonald?
But you can be sure if McDnald ends up @ the Euros, Murdoch or Brewster will be on the bench, at least.
Scotland will automatically play in this years European championships A division - with the top teams advancing to the 2015 worlds. So a weak Scottish performance could see them miss out on the worlds next year - which won't directly however on the Sochi rules offer qualification points for the 2018 Olympics (only the 2016 and 2017 worlds will).
However the bottom team(s) in the A division can be relegated to division B at the Europeans for 2015 - and potentially reduce (albeit not eliminate as there is a play off I believe) their chances of making the 2016 worlds This then really hits Olympic qualification chances - although at worst (as a result of competing this year in the worlds) they will be eligible for the Olympics qualifying event likely to take place in December 2017 for those nations who didn't get direct entry based on the 2016 and 2017 worlds performance.
Nothing that happened in this years worlds affects anything moving forward - but in the future it could!
http://corporate.olympics.com.au/files/dmfile/WCF_Curling_Sochi2014_QualSystems_Dec2011_Web.pdf
In the end its up to the RCCC - but they must be a little worried given Barr and MacDonald's performances.
Got to beat Canada and Germany to stand a chance of reaching the semi finals really.
Ulsrud looking very good to make up for his Olympic disappointment, and Japan still have a tie-break chance against Sweden for a play-off spot; they upped their game in front of a Chinese crowd lol.
Well it could have been worse - Scotland finished 9th when it was looking like they could finish 12th and last two days ago.
The Sweden vs Japan play off is in the early hours - their skips both look about 12 so you would be forgiven for thinking its the world juniors.:D
I expect a Canada vs Norway final - but we shall see. Still plenty of eurosport coverage - with the semi final and final live on Saturday and Sunday morning (lucky time wise so it misses the Davis cup tennis).
And I think that is it for curling on UK tv for another season
Web coverage either by laola1 or https://www.youtube.com/user/curlingchampionstour (don'tcha wish everything was in one place....)
Should be an interesting tussle between the Norwegian stalwarts and the Swedish youngsters.
Does throw up some interesting challenges in the future for the Swedish selectors. Do they put out Team Edin or Team Eriksson or more fairly just let them play off to decide who gives to each tournament. Cos through really have strength in depth.
We could find simething similar with Hannah Fleming vs Eve Muirhead.
They're frighteningly good!
It does leave a dilemma for the Swedish selectors, but with World and European curling being so strong, you could enter two teams from many countries (a bit like Bob where they have GBR1 and GBR2) and make it two groups of, say, 8 with semi's of 1 v 2 and 2 v 1 and keep doubled countries apart till then.
Mind you, Canada could enter 4 in mens and womens, easily....
No medal for Canada after being defeated by three European teams in a row!