Scotland and Sweden, right behind each other.
The match against Scotland this afternoon had a special flavour. The skip of the opposition, David Murdoch, has a very negative record against our national team. Of course he knows this, although the Scottish coach (a Swede, by the way) jokingly told me during the game that he was keeping it from him. Things like that can play a part. But they didn't. The game, which was of only average standard, was kept under control by the Scots and basically they never once let us do anything more. The end came after nine ends when we were down by four. The follow-up game with the Swedes (Edin) has had a similar course so far. After six ends we are down 2 to 5 and somehow we are not able to create. Perhaps now that Martin plays an accurate freeze to the stone behind the tee and Niklas Edin has to play a slightly harder double. But his execution is more than 100%. The Swede has two and Jirka plays his first. Again a great freeze, just slightly off the angle. It's infuriating. Edin manages to keep two stones in the circle with the crank (jam in the back circles), so we have to draw to one. Draw is ok, and so it's 3 to 5, advantage opponent. On Eurosport, maybe it's running - I don't know because the player is blocked here, so just a few observations. Next door on the track, Canada is crushing the sad Swiss. The crowd occasionally explodes after successful triple take outs, draws or freebies by their heroes. The duel between Finn and Nora is even, with the Chinese leading over the Russian. We're trying, but it's really hard. Now Kraup and Edin have been thinking for about four minutes, but it's more about getting two or three. We'll see. In the end, the Swede is one up thanks to our failed tap back. Meanwhile, the Canadian put Michel out of his misery with an accurate runback (7 :2). The Swiss didn't have the strength to continue. What about ours? We build corner guards and the Swede breaks them down. We need a two and we're in the thick of it - Jindra's come around is 100%. The Swede has two in the circle and we have nothing. We've been short with the come around and the two is going to be tough. That leaves freeze. We're short again - is the ice slowing down? A little tap on one will still keep us in the game. There it is. Now we try to steal two. Kjell gives one chip, not the other, and that determines the continuation of the endgame. It's not coming yet. Even Edin's first, which is a bit more on the chamber, doesn't give us that chance. Jirka puts the second one in the ring and God willing. So the Lord God didn't help us much. The score is 4 to 7 and the team is off for the rest of the day, except for the evening practice. Jakub rested in this game. We'll need his strength tomorrow.rn
photo - hotel where the Czech team is staying