The U.S. Men ended their Olympic foray in ignominious fashion, losing 11–5 to the last-placed Chinese team on Monday night.
Despite their best efforts, the U.S. men simply couldn’t make shots when they needed to while the Chinese not only made some good shots, they got a few lucky breaks, something missing conspicuously from the U.S. games, this week.
The U.S. team finished two and seven, the worst record of any U.S. curling team since the sport was played in the Olympics.
John Shuster was back throwing last rock for the U.S. team, while Chris Plys replaced Jason Smith, who plans to retire. The new lineup is the one they will field at the National Championships in two weeks, and the U.S. team figured they had nothing to lose by testing it out against the Chinese.
The Americans had already been eliminated from the curling finals with their loss to Canada Monday morning.
After the game U.S. skip John Shuster tried to find some positives out of the team’s Olympic experiences.
“The positives are we actually came here,” he told an NBC reporter. “Obviously I underperformed. The guys actually played fairly well. As far as gameplay went, we had chances to win games. Late in games we had hammers in extra ends and we had lots of ends set up. I didn’t finish a few and we let a couple get away.”
Shuster showed he had not lost faith in himself or his teammates. “Play us different week and it would probably come out a lot differently,” he said.
“We are going to go to national championships in two weeks and battle it there and maybe get back a little bit of that swagger we had earlier in the week, when we were here starting and going up against these top teams.”
The U.S. squad did indeed have a miserable week, and their final game against China they hoped to at least salvage some pride by beating the last place team and not going home with the worst record in U.S. Olympic curling history.
However, they came out missing shots from the start, with Shuster missing a double takeout to give China three points in the first end. Benton and Isaacson threw bad shots in the second, though Shuster came through with his shots to earn the U.S. two.
The Americans hung tough in the third, holding China to one, but in the fourth Shuster launched an airball, letting China steal one.
Bad Luck or No Luck at All
China, the only team with a worse record than the United States, also juggled its lineup, benching skip Fengchun Wang in favor of alternate Rui Liu. The change paid off when Liu threw and incredibly lucky double takeout in the fifth. Liu’s shot missed badly, hitting his own guard, but caromed off to hit two U.S. rocks knocking one out of the house entirely and sending the other out of scoring range.
This was exactly the sort of break the American team hadn’t gotten all week, and apparently their luck wasn’t about to change. America had to settle for one.
The U.S. stole point in the sixth end as Liu hit his own guard again, this time with no lucky breaks, but the seventh end almost broke the Americans. Down only one pint after the sixth, the Americans had every reason to think they might pull out the victory.
With ten rocks in play and eight in the house, there were opportunities for the U.S. to bury a shot somewhere to steal a point, but Shuster’s hit and roll didn’t do much, leaving China an easy draw for three. Down four with three ends left, things were looking pretty grim.
The U.S. had the hammer in the eighth, and when it came to the final shooters, there were five rocks in the house, with China lying two. Liu tried a double takeout with a roll, hitting only one U.S. rock but leaving China lying three. Shuster delivered a good run-back, leaving the U.S. with shot rock. China’s Liu wasted his last rock, barley hitting the 12-foot ring, but Shuster’s attempt at a tricky double takeout also missed. When the U.S. team needed that lucky break it just didn’t come, and the U.S. was held to a single point
As he cleared the rocks from the end, Shuster could be heard muttering, “I’m sick of this stupid game.”
The final end was the worst of all, with everything working for the Chinese and nothing for the Americans. Shuster’s first shot hit a guard. For is second, he needed to remove three Chinese rocks to steal a point. Shuster gave it his best shot, but it was not to be.
The Americans ended their painful Olympic journey with a concession to China, in perhaps the worst beating of the week. The U.S. squad tried hard, but it was simply not their week.
