WMXCC2016: Today we played against ourselves, Dutch team say

The morning session of the World Mixed Curling Championship featured some very dramatic and high-scoring matches.

Turkey-Croatia, 9-3

The Turkish team took the lead from the outset and dominated the game. Only at the end of the match Croatia managed to win several ends.

“The game worked out just the way we planned but we tried to stay focused and to work our way forward. But to be honest, at the end we played poorly and missed several stones. We shouldn’t let such mistakes happen in the future, otherwise we can let a victory slip away,” explained Ugurcan Karagoz, the player of the Turkish national team.

England-Finland, 6-4

The most keenly contested battle of the morning session unfolded between the tournament’s contenders – England and Finland. The teams followed hard after each other, and the match lasted until the eighth end. However, it was England that eventually celebrated the victory.

“We tried to follow our plan but we kept missing one stone after another. We will work harder and do our best to win. We’ve missed our chance today but I assure you that we will not repeat the same mistake in the future,” said Milja Hellsten, one of the players of the Finnish national team.

Netherlands-Germany, 2-13

Team Germany were superior to the Netherlands in all aspects of the game and did not give them a single chance during the match, winning 2-13. The German curlers displayed a stunning performance packed with beautiful deliveries but the Dutch team intend to correct their mistakes in the future.

“One can say that we played against ourselves in this match. Our opponents, Germany, showed a beautiful match but it’s always tough to play against them. They made mistakes in several deliveries but the rest of them were practically ideal,” admitted Willem Van Der Steeg, Team Netherlands’ second.

New Zealand-Romania, 9-1

Romania was not able to hold off a strong challenge from New Zealand who posted a blowout win over their rivals.

Brazil-Slovakia, 4-6

“It took us about two ends to feel out the curling sheet today and to understand how well the stones slide. It took us some time to get accommodated to the game; we were sizing up our opponents and at first we were not doing very well in the game. But later on we started to play better. Both teams made mistakes but there also were positive aspects. Overall, the game left only positive impression. It’s always nice to win,” Jakub Polak, the player of the Slovak team, shared his thoughts during an interview.