USA males’s curling falls to China and Italy, hurting semifinal hopes

US curling coach Phil Drobnik advised reporters earlier than Tuesday’s second sport that it was the most important match of his younger roller’s lives.

Members of Team Casper, all competing of their first Olympics, had been enjoying on the most important stage, needing a win to maintain their playoff hopes alive, and so they had been taking over an Italy workforce enjoying in entrance of a closely lopsided house crowd.

Drobnik added he was hopeful the workforce may give the US followers within the crowd one thing to cheer about. But with that stress, it was the veteran Italian workforce that got here out on prime.

Four-time Olympian Joel Retornaz met the Italian crowd’s expectations, taking a sizeable lead with three within the sixth and by no means letting the Americans get well in an 8-5 win — the second lack of the day for the US

Even with the loss, US skip Danny Casper counseled the loud crowd within the constructing.

“That was awesome. Super fun,” Casper stated. “Obviously, it didn’t come out our way, but the crowd being loud and chanting, and, I don’t know, playing instruments or I don’t know what was going on, but it’s super cool to be a part of. Maybe not the easiest to enjoy all of it is when we’re not playing our best, but I think we had a couple moments during the game where we just tried to look around. We’ve never played an atmosphere like that. I hope curling continues to go in that direction.”

In the sixth, Casper’s freeze try on his final stone overcurled by a few foot, sitting huge open for a takeout by Retornaz. The Italian skip eliminated the US rock for 3 factors and a 5-2 lead.

Team USA bought two again within the seventh. Retornaz’s guard throw on his last rock was manner off, and Casper responded with a nose-hit takeout that bought his workforce again inside one.

Italy returned with two extra within the eighth, and all of the Americans may muster was one within the ninth as they gave up hammer for the ultimate finish.

Needing a steal within the tenth, it simply wasn’t meant to be for Team USA. They sat two rocks far aside in the home forward of Italy’s final stone, however Retornaz once more did not miss. He took out one for a single level and the ultimate three-point victory over the Americans.

“It was just a lot of the little stuff,” Casper stated. “Similar to this morning, just not being precise on our draws. Credit to them, as well, because they played really well and made a lot of runbacks and doubles and whatnot. But we’ve just got to regroup. I think we did a lot of things better this evening than this morning, so we’ll keep those in mind moving forward.”

Other than the rating, the 2 groups had been even matched in most statistical classes. Italy narrowly outshot the US (81 vs. 80 p.c) on draw photographs, and was higher on takeouts (86 vs. 74 p.c). Neither workforce had a steal within the contest.

The two losses on Tuesday tremendously harm the Americans’ semifinal hopes. At 4-4, they’ve fallen from 4th to fifth within the standings, with simply the highest 4 groups transferring on. They have only one sport remaining towards one other playoff hopeful, Great Britain, the workforce they’re tied with for fifth. Great Britain is the defending world champion and was the favourite coming into Cortina, however their workforce has additionally struggled and misplaced to Canada on Tuesday.

“I’ve never really been one to look at the standings,” Casper stated. “Every game is the same to me. Not even in a cheesy way, that’s just kind of how I am. But it’s just one game at a time and then it’s a new day tomorrow, not only just a new game. So get some rest and, like I mentioned, I think we did some things better this evening than we did this morning, so we’ll keep those in mind moving into tomorrow and have a good game.”

The US will face Great Britain on Wednesday at 8:05 am ET.

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