Canada Curling Team Squeezes Past Germany in Olympic Opener

Canada has opened its bid to defend its Olympic curling title by edging past Germany 11-8. Despite hopes that this would be a great match, as the Canadian captain Brad Jacobs said, “It was pretty ugly, to be honest”.

Germany won two points in the third end to go ahead 4-2 before Canada managed to regain the lead. However, in the ninth end, Germany managed to close the gap to 9-8. Having thrown the final rock, Jacobs missed draws in both those ends, a massive mistake for a man who is widely seen as the top player in curling.

After the match Jacobs said, “It’s a different event to any regular event. There are nerves out there.” Perhaps correctly, the German captain John Jahr thought that Canada underestimated his team saying “they don’t know us.”

Jacobs also complained that he found it hard to play through the noise of the horn-blowing Russian fans that succeeded in bringing a lively atmosphere to the area which was only three-quarters full.