U.S. curling coach Phil Drobnik told reporters before Tuesday’s second game that it was the biggest match of his young curler’s lives.
Members of Team Casper, all competing in their first Olympics, were playing on the biggest stage, needing a win to keep their playoff hopes alive, and they were taking on an Italy team playing in front of a heavily lopsided home crowd.
Drobnik added he was hopeful the team could give the U.S. fans in the crowd something to cheer about. But with that pressure, it was the veteran Italian team that came out on top.
Four-time Olympian Joel Retornaz met the Italian crowd’s expectations, taking a sizeable lead with three in the sixth and never letting the Americans recover in an 8-5 win — the second loss of the day for the U.S.
Even with the loss, U.S. skip Danny Casper commended the loud crowd in the building.
“That was awesome. Super fun,” Casper said. “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 attempt on his last stone overcurled by about a foot, sitting wide open for a takeout by Retornaz. The Italian skip removed the U.S. rock for three points and a 5-2 lead.
Team USA got two back in the seventh. Retornaz’s guard throw on his final rock was way off, and Casper answered with a nose-hit takeout that got his team back within one.
Italy returned with two more in the eighth, and all the Americans could muster was one in the ninth as they gave up hammer for the final end.
Needing a steal in the 10th, it just wasn’t meant to be for Team USA. They sat two rocks far apart in the house ahead of Italy’s last stone, but Retornaz again didn’t miss. He took out one for a single point and the final three-point victory over the Americans.
“It was just a lot of the little stuff,” Casper said. “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 score, the two teams were evenly matched in most statistical categories. Italy narrowly outshot the U.S. (81 vs. 80 percent) on draw shots, and was better on takeouts (86 vs. 74 percent). Neither team had a steal in the contest.
The two losses on Tuesday greatly hurt the Americans’ semifinal hopes. At 4-4, they’ve fallen from 4th to 5th in the standings, with just the top four teams moving on. They have just one game remaining against another playoff hopeful, Great Britain, the team they’re tied with for 5th. Great Britain is the defending world champion and was the favorite coming into Cortina, but their team has also struggled and lost to Canada on Tuesday.
“I’ve never really been one to look at the standings,” Casper said. “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 U.S. will face Great Britain on Wednesday at 8:05 a.m. ET.
SCOREBOARD
United States (5)
Italy (8)
1
1st end
0
0
2nd end
2
1
3rd end
0
0
4th end
0
0
5th end
0
0
6th end
3
2
7th end
0
0
8th end
2
1
9th end
0
0
10th end
1
