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Czech Republic - Finland men. online

the first end of the important Czech Republic - Finland match. The very first end is quite offensive. We've got the advantage in LSD, but now there are three better Finnish stones in the circles. A good double played by Mark leaves only one Finnish scoring and ours almost behind the corner guard. Fin knocks ours out and we miss. Three Finnish stones in the circles again. One is gone and Sipola plays the front circles to get three. Double misses and when Sipola throws a stay we go against the three. we play a draw and we are on the tee!!! one ours but we sweat it out.

rn

End 2: James calls. The two is ok. the comearound finishes at the corner guard. Three guards and we're with the come around on one of them. a lot of spin, especially when there's less rotation. Fin's coming in good, though, and we're trying the running back. Super shot with a roll behind those guards. Bravo, Sam. The Finns have managed to open things up, but they're playing a pretty heavy double and the roll probably isn't there. Big weight, our stones are gone but so are Finn's. we play our last stone in the end behind the corner guard but we stay semi-open in the back circles and Finn will play to zero. And he's succeeding. Still one nil to us and Fin has the advantage.

rn

End 3: We start with the guard again. K comes in nicely behind the two guard. Malmi and we play the back circle. I think it's going to be hot. Well maybe not, Fin is short and leaves us a freeze. Marek tries it. It doesn't work, but Fin also fights for the guards, which are already 4 in front of the circle. We miss the softpeel by a hair and Fin successfully plays the second stone into the circle. With luck we roll after touching the guard to a good position and fin plays a draw, which changes the angles of the stones in the circles. Our attempt at guard is narrow, but we tap another stone with a clever roll and the situation is pretty much covered. We don't know who has one from the bench right now, but one thing's for sure, it takes a good guard. Lukas is going for it. Guard excellent. Sipola is going to play clear or some more prep. He's thinking and thinking. So, clear. A bit of a mistake. A run back after which Fin has two stones behind the guards. We'll try to slide one out, but it's going to the two northerners. The guys may still see something else, maybe a draw, but I don't know. A well played stone. Now we have one and fin is going to try to tap back to three. it's not easy, but it's good. fin didn't hit it and we have one!

rn

End 4: we played a draw but we're only behind by three. it doesn't matter, even if we're a bit off centre. Fin plays corner guard, not badly, and we play into the circle. we're on eight and Fin plays a freeze. the shorter stone goes out and we have two. Fin plays a double, but one of ours stays in. mark plays a clear. it will only be played on the left side, where the corner guard is tight, unless there are rolls out. We have two hitters and fin's come around is not perfect. we play a soft peel and the situation is basically the same. fin comes around again and just as inaccurately. after the hit we can have a three in the circles. Stay and Sipolu tries to roll. If he plays it we'll have a problem, if he's inaccurate he'll have a problem. It comes out less than halfway. we play take out and it's a top roll. fin plays a draw against a three. Finn one. After four ends, we're up 2-1 and have the advantage.rn

End 5: Malmi plays us. We've got a nice corner guard and James is making some great runs for him. The raggedy one of the Malmi brothers accidentally adds a second center guard instead of a free throw, so our two stones are behind a trio of Finnish guards. Mistake - we are longer and have set up a pocket for the Finns just behind the tee line and the Finnish freeze may be unfortunate. we have to make a switch. Marek did make the switch. Fin is the best right now, but we are on him and all it takes is a small Finnish mistake and we could score more. after the Finnish guard we play a run back. We miss well and Fin goes to the guard again. It ends up being a freeze and we play Sam tap back to change angles and keep our hopes of more points alive. Maybe we get one, maybe we get two, but maybe we don't. It's far away, and we don't know. Sipola plays a freeze and gets four points for it. Now we really don't know. The guys decide to soft peel. from the side over our ejected Finn, but we're almost at the chamber and nothing really happened. we're still groping how it's there then. Fin played guard, so he's got about one and we're trying the same thing again as before. We're missing, I guess it really couldn't be played, but it'll measure up. Two Czech and one Finnish. The Finns have one. Two-two and break.rn

6th end: Let's go, Czechs. The Finns are shorter than they wanted and we're behind their one guard going to the top of the circles. Fin comes in behind us and we play a nice freeze to him. It promises to be an interesting ending. Fin tries a freeze as well and plays a very short guard again. We've pushed out the Finn's best, and so it's two of ours behind a pair of guards. Fin has played into the circle but we can play roll and it works. we have three and Fin tries to roll. it's stay and we have two. Lukas thinks for a moment which side to draw from, we mustn't pass to our opponent, that would be a shame now. We're behind, but it's nice. Sinisalo is long and we still have three better. Sam plays another draw outturn. Not bad. We got three, but Sipola's going around the circles and he doesn't know. It's either a draw or a tough double. It's all happening around that pair of Finnish guards. It's a take out and a hair goes around the guards. we've got two better ones and we're in. It's still good. We have three after Luke's draw though and there's a pocket that when Sipola goes in, it's over end. it's a very key shot and he's going. Sipola's long and we're matched up on four! It's a little bit out of bounds but it's the fourth best stone in the ring. we're up 6-2 going into the seventh end. It's not over yet, we need to stay focused. Sipola's already tied the score at 2-7 with no advantage against the Italians, so he can do it. Watch out for that.

rn

7th end: Our first one is just over the tee line and the Finns have a corner. After a series of clears, two Finnish corner guards are in the game and we're peeling them for dear life. Sinisalo doesn't fit around the corner guard and after a roll into the circles, Marek unerringly kicks out. Sinisalo - second attempt to do the same. The stone is all visible and Lukas plays an inturn take out. Successful, roll out and Sipola tries another deuce. A very nice try, after which we have to play come around and probably the most effective would be a freeze. It almost worked but still fin can play for two if he plays a little tap back and stays in the ring. We almost swept it, but in the end we didn't. Two fins. We're up 6-4 and we've got the advantage.rn

8th end: Mid end we have one stone in the ring, corner guard on the other side, and Fin plays a come around behind center guard who stayed there after trying to clear. But Sinisalo doesn't even finish the play, so we play peel center guard, Fin then take out ours from the circle and if there's no mistake we're headed to zero. There is nothing in front of the skip stones in the circles and the corner guards are almost useless. The stone in the middle of the circles belongs to Czech and Sipola chips it out with luck. We lose and the zero brings us one end closer to an important win. We just need to persevere!!!rn

9th end: The Finns' play is better than ours. Two guards and we were twice as long on come arouns. Marek plays clear to three guards and excellent. Two fly away and ours is in an unusable position. Well done, Mark! The Finns add a guard and we wisely don't play a double but only one, and successfully. Both teams have plenty of time and we have no problem with time as we play one clear after another. After Sam's first, there's still one Finnish guard in the game and Sinisalo adds another. Sipola tries a draw, but it's short. There's two guards and we're taking time out to play draw or clear both guards. It's a question mark. I'd rather double clear, but a good draw would be nice. We're on the tee line with Luke's attempt, but there's a roll behind those guards. Sipola plays a brilliant stone. Ours is gone and Fin is on the tee behind the guards. We've got about ten centimetres of room for a better draw. We're shorter and just narrowly miss one of the guards. It's a Finn one and we go into the last end one up with the advantage.

rn

10th end: We play a chip to the Finnish two guard, but it doesn't come out. The Finnish serve is great again and we play the draw for them. weight excellent, directionally we are a bit out. Finn plays a freeze and he's a bit overswept. We have a chance to play a little roll and then go to cleraing with a good constellation in the ring. Excellent. Just like it was supposed to be! Angle freeze by Finn followed by a clear by the furthest guard is the logical continuation. Already Sinisalo is playing, and playing very well - moving ours behind the tee line and setting up well for the sequel. Sam plays a successful take out of one of the Finnish stones and slides the other one a little to the side. a lot of action around the four foot. The Finnish attempt knocks one of ours out, but there's a double for us, but we miss it and knock one of our stones out in turn. Outturn may not have been a good choice. Sipola freezes our stone on the tee and we're in a tangle. Freeze is probably the best option, but it has to be accurate. After a light tap, there's a freeze. We've got one now, with Fin stuck on ours and us on it again. Sipola goes to the tap back and he's off. The players are gathered around the circle and we think we're better. We're gonna throw it around and then we're gonna measure it. It's really measuring, but there's no room to put the gauge. The umpires are gathered around the circle. Now the main one comes in and we wait for her verdict. It's the finishing stone and we're going to the extra end!!! So now just concentrate and don't let the other end be stolen.

rn

extraend: sorry I was on the toilet, it was getting a bit long. After six stones, fin has centre guard and plays. the stones are now together and the double is there! marek clears excellently and there is only one open corner guard. fin tries centre guard again. He's at the one and sam makes a successful execution. Sinisalo and his guard? Tight three and we play clear. Skip stones. We're clearing Sipol's two guard, and we're doing it successfully. Last two stones. Sipola plays corner guard and he's behind the ring!!! We have a draw anywhere to win. Cool your heads boys!!! It's on. The win is ours. But the nerves!!!