A bitter defeat and a spirited ride for the Slovaks.

photo - bleeding Karel

The semi-final of the men's group B brought together the Czechs and Slovaks. Unlike the Slovaks, we had a free day as we advanced from first place and just watched, mostly on the web, as the Slovaks crushed the Turks and then outplayed the Latvians in the quarter-finals. The game itself against our eastern neighbour was tense from the start. We couldn't take advantage in the first end and got a deuce, after which we played better and got a deuce. We went into the break with the game tied. The second half started better for us. After eight ends we were leading by three, but the Slovaks pinned us and with a bit of luck, but also after some excellent stones (a runback over three stones to a two in the circles with a stopper in the form of our stone), we again made mistakes and the opponent scored for three, thus equalizing. The tenth end was a heart attack. Both teams were running out of time. It was played around that kind of half-corner guard until the end. I had a chance with my rock to knock out the fateful guard, but missed. Then, with the last stones, first David Mishun didn't get past said guard and left us an eight-footer. The final Czech draw lightly touched that damn guard and Slovakian madness broke out. We were sad and for a while we couldn't believe what had happened. We lost a promising game. Two of us even bled, but it wasn't enough to make a Slovakian happy wave. It means the Slovaks will be in the A at Europe next year and we play the Canadians from Israel for bronze tomorrow and we want at least a medal and Gruyere cheese. There is probably nothing more to say about the course of the European Championship from our side. What we came here to do didn't happen. Sorry. We have more work to do to be more mentally resilient and generally more accurate in our gameplay.