The internet is also a problem in Germany.
Due to internet connection problems, my posts have been delayed. You probably already know everything, so just a summary from my point of view: The women's team moved down to sixth place in the rankings with their final two losses and did not make it to the Olympics at all, although a win against the Latvians could have earned them a tie break for third place and thus a chance for the Olympics. The Latvians, however, played very well and outplayed the Czech team. In the second part of the match our women created a number of chances, but always lost them by their own mistake. The overall result is a setback, but on the other hand it must be said that the Asian teams visibly outperformed the European ones in all activities and to advance over the Chinese and Japanese was beyond the capabilities of any of the participating teams. The women put in a spirited performance, but there is still some way to go to be world class. Men. Five wins swapped advancement to the first-second match, and thus "two lives". A promising starting position, but with humility in the sense that the string of wins was very close. The match against Germany (Jahr) was in a way about one end (three in the fifth), but then an excellent comeback and even a very good position in the extra end. The German Schulze four, however, probably exhausted its inaccuracies in the previous ends and with an uneasy stone (angle raise) secured the German team's qualification for the Olympics. A great season for this team - winning the B-EC and qualifying for the worlds - is crowned with the Olympics. We were able to exercise our second life against the USA (Schuster). A balanced game with a better starting position for us, it was a bit surprisingly quite defensive in its middle part. However, all it took were some minor mistakes in the eighth end and the skip of the Czechs (with no advantage) was up against the American four, opting for a somewhat surprising run back. The inaccurate execution opened the way for an easy draw by the Americans on five and it was virtually decided. The development of the eighth end was also influenced by a not very successful Czech time out. The USA did not let the win be taken away. The Czech men left a very good impression and their performance was almost enough to qualify for the Olympics. Experience, technical maturity (especially J. Snitil) and good physical condition were evident. The reserve is still in the choice of solutions to some game situations. Czech teams did not reach the Olympics. What Czech curling invested effort, time, money and enthusiasm in, it failed to reach a successful end. Not even the hired national coach helped. Let's hope that these experiences, which are rather bitter at this point, will help four years later on the road to the 2018 Olympics.
rnphoto by Americans