One bad end was all it took.
With hammer in the eighth end of Tuesday's round-robin game against China, the U.S. had a wide-open four-foot. All Danny Casper had to do was draw to the button.
His shot, though, glided way too fast and floated into the eight-foot, allowing China to steal three and take a commanding 5-2 lead in a defensive game with just two ends remaining.
Even though the U.S. got it back in the ninth, the steal gave China hammer in the 10th, and they took advantage on the way to an 8-5 victory over Team USA.
Casper's sweepers took the blame for the miscue at the end of the eighth.
"It was a bit of a misread by Ben (Richardson) and I on the sweep there," said U.S. third Aidan Oldenburg. "Because he threw it good enough to make it and it’s our job as sweepers to make that draw for him in the eighth."
Casper made up for it in the ninth. With his team lying two rocks in the back of the house behind just one Chinese stone that was all alone, Casper took that stone out to give his team three and even the score going into the final end.
The comeback attempt ended in the 10th, though. Needing a steal for the win, the Americans were unable to get stones built up in the house. Sitting one in the eight-foot, Casper's final throw again came up short, and both rocks were taken out on Xu Xiaoming's hammer throw, giving China three in the 10th for the win.
"I knew we had to go all out for the steal and put some rocks in good spots, and we just weren't sharp enough with those a couple first rocks," Oldenburg said.
The teams traded single points in the early parts of the match. The U.S. was up 2-1 at the fifth-end break.
“I think we just struggled making shots, executing, throwing the right weight, everything really,” Casper said. “Credit to them, but we lost it ourselves."
The men were coming back from an off day on Tuesday, but Casper said he didn't think the loss could be blamed on that.
Officials also papered the rocks — a process of sand papering the bottom parts — on Tuesday night.
“I don’t really think the day off has anything do it with it," he said. "Obviously papering the stone does. It was quite the roller coaster out there at the beginning of the game to figure out the paths and what not. I think we had a lot of opportunities to jump on them. We were playing way better than them early on and didn’t capitalize."
With the loss, the U.S. falls to 4-3 and into a tie with Great Britain for 4th in the men's standings. The top four teams at the end of round-robin play advance to the semifinals.
"You want to win this to set us up for playoff position, but we're going to reset and go get it tonight," Oldenburg said. "We have two games left in round-robin, so every game counts at this point. We’re feeling a little down right now, obviously because we just lost, but we’re hoping to reset and get after."
“Just keep grinding. We did a good job of getting three back," Casper said. "We’ve got to keep it going and read the ice for what it is, and I think we’ve got some added motivation."
The Americans will be back on the ice at 1:05 p.m. ET to take on Italy.
| United States (5) | China (8) | |
| 0 | 1st end | 0 |
| 1 | 2nd end | 0 |
| 0 | 3rd end | 1 |
| 1 | 4th end | 0 |
| 0 | 5th end | 0 |
| 0 | 6th end | 1 |
| 0 | 7th end | 0 |
| 0 | 8th end | 3 |
| 3 | 9th end | 0 |
| 0 | 10th end | 3 |
Italy 8, USA 5 (Session 2)
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.
| 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 |