thurdl sports

FWWCC: Sweden and US advance ahead of last three draws

Sweden and the US both went undefeated yesterday, putting them atop the leaderboard. Each has two draws left today, but their records already have them in the next round.

Yesterday's action had the Swedish team destroying the hapless, and still winless, team from the Netherlands before being played close by the Chinese, who are currently a game out of the top four positions that will advance to the playoffs.

The United States team, after getting two consecutive draws off to rest up, dispatched the Italian team 9-7, and the Canadians by a convincing 6-2 score. So right now, it's looking very much like a revenge fueled US team, the defending Olympic champs of last month...and everyone else. The pack starts two games back from the United States right now.

Today features the last three draws of the Round Robin. The United States will rest the first draw before playing the Netherlands (0-9) and Japan (2-7). We should sweep those two games (no pun intended) but with our spot in the playoffs assured, we might hold back.

The four teams going for the last two spots have the following tasks ahead of them today:

Germany (6-3) plays Italy (4-5), then is off, then China (5-4)
Canada (6-3) plays Denmark (5-4), then is off, then Norway (4-5)
China (5-4) starts on a bye draw, then plays Italy (4-5), and Germany (6-3)
Denmark (5-4) plays Canada (6-3), Norway (4-5), and has off the last draw

Magic number is 8 wins right now. Germany and Canada are in with sweeps. Denmark and China can force a playoff with a sweep, since each has one of the 6-3 teams on tap.

posted by thurdl @ 8:13 AM