Registered: Sep 2003
Location: Canada
Posts: 1992

It's always hard to predict the Women's Worlds, especially now that Canada isn't always the lone favorites.
In most of the teams there's a reason to believe they could medal/win it all but on the flip side there are many reasons that they could all fail.

Based on the Euros 2010,2011, Scotland and Sweden have to be considered as favorites along with Canada.

Report this post to a moderator | IP: Logged

Registered: Not Yet
Location:
Posts: N/A

Scotland, Canada, Sweden, Switzerland.

Germany without Andrea no big threat, China with their worst season in a series of bad seasons, Korea without much experience against European and NA curlers. Russia actually has a shot on the playoffs, Denmark too.

Report this post to a moderator | IP: 95.91.50.112

Registered: Mar 2012
Location: Sydney
Posts: 89

final 4:

Canada - one of the best teams there

Switzerland - will benefit from the chinese team's constant line up shuffling this season. Mirjam always seems to do well in Canada too

Scotland - One of the best if not the best team there.

Russia - Call me crazy but I think they are due for a break through at the world championships. They were close last year and confidence should be high. Line up is staying constant and that should help

Report this post to a moderator | IP: Logged

Registered: Feb 2011
Location: Toronto
Posts: 511

So it looks like the Chinese Curling Association decided to add some Canadian content again with its coaching staff.

I believe Christine's husband was hired on first to assist with the Mens Team before the Pacific Asia Championships and continues to coach this squad.

On the WWCC site, they list Christine on the Flower's Squad as well which explains their weeks in Morris, Manitoba before heading to Grand Priarie and now in Lethbridge.

Being a Flowers follower ummm okay being the Bingyu follower, I don't know much about the Hamblein's other than they're Level 4 Coaches and have coach the Swiss before Vancouver.

Here's my breakdown of the WWCC

1-Canada
2-China
3-Scotland
4-Sweden
-----------------
5-Switzerland (loses Tiebreaker #2 to Sweden)
6-Russia (loses Tiebreaker #1 to Switzerland)
7-Denmark
8-Germany
9-USA
10-Italy
11-South Korea
12-Czech Republic

I expect Canada to be 10 and 1 or 9 and 2 at the worst with the Alberta Ice/Fan Advantage.

Based with this prediction, the Flowers can be 9 and 2 at the high end or 7 and 4 at the low end. If they finish 7 & 4, the losses are to South Korea, Sweden, Russia and Switzerland.

Sorry to say, but the bottom three will only have 4 wins COMBINED between them.

Last edited by China Supporter on 03-15-12 at 08:33PM

Report this post to a moderator | IP: Logged

Registered: Jan 2011
Location: Louisiana
Posts: 222

I think the Czechs will do better than you think. They will be inspired by the performance of their junior teams. AKA, anything is possible.

Also the performance of some teams in the Scotties/Brier will be inspirational to the so-called "also rans".

That said,

Go Eve, Anna, Vicki and Claire!

Mark

Report this post to a moderator | IP: Logged

Registered: Mar 2011
Location:
Posts: 298

Queen Eve Muirhead is certainly the gold medal favorite. She will win the RR stage. She will probably win the 1-2 game over Heather Nedohin's Canadian Champion team. However in the final Queen Heather will rise to the occasion with her best performance and take advantage of some nervous and uncharacteristic misses from the best curler in the World Eve Muirhead, and will shock all by triumphing as World Champions. Queen Muirhead and her team will have to accept silver for the second timee but it will be the beginning of many years of golds and domination ahead. The bronze could go to any of Sweden, China, Switzerland, dont think it will be China though.

Report this post to a moderator | IP: Logged

Registered: Mar 2012
Location: Sydney
Posts: 89

The Czech Republic and United States I think will cause some surprises and upsets. Neither team is to be underestimated and neither is Italy. I could actually see the United States grabbing a playoff spot with a good week

Report this post to a moderator | IP: Logged

Registered: Mar 2012
Location: Sydney
Posts: 89

Well this is interesting: apparently the flu wasnt just going around the scotties. It struck at the swedish national championship and apparently got Anette herself pretty hard

Report this post to a moderator | IP: Logged

Registered: May 2011
Location: Toronto
Posts: 50

quote:

---

Originally posted by valkyrie svy
Well this is interesting: apparently the flu wasnt just going around the scotties. It struck at the swedish national championship and apparently got Anette herself pretty hard

---

Report this post to a moderator | IP: Logged

Registered: Sep 2003
Location: Canada
Posts: 1992

Melanie Robillard will be the SKIP for the German team!


LINK to the story

Report this post to a moderator | IP: Logged

Registered: Jan 2011
Location:
Posts: 1962

quote:

---

Originally posted by KittyHisses
Queen Eve Muirhead is certainly the gold medal favorite. She will win the RR stage. She will probably win the 1-2 game over Heather Nedohin's Canadian Champion team. However in the final Queen Heather will rise to the occasion with her best performance and take advantage of some nervous and uncharacteristic misses from the best curler in the World Eve Muirhead, and will shock all by triumphing as World Champions. Queen Muirhead and her team will have to accept silver for the second timee but it will be the beginning of many years of golds and domination ahead. The bronze could go to any of Sweden, China, Switzerland, dont think it will be China though.

---

Report this post to a moderator | IP: Logged

Registered: Mar 2012
Location: Sydney
Posts: 89

I wish it gave more infor about the lineup. I though Monika would skip but maybe she will stay as fifth player and they are letting the young girls play.

Report this post to a moderator | IP: Logged

Registered: Sep 2003
Location: Canada
Posts: 1992

According to Team Schopp's Facebook Page:

Melanie is skipping but throwing 3rd stones
Imogen Lehmann will throw 4th stones
Corinna Scholz is the second
Stella Heiss is the lead

Report this post to a moderator | IP: Logged

Registered: Jan 2011
Location: Louisiana
Posts: 222

quote:

---

Originally posted by ObsessiveCurler
According to Team Schopp's Facebook Page:

Melanie is skipping but throwing 3rd stones
Imogen Lehmann will throw 4th stones
Corinna Scholz is the second
Stella Heiss is the lead

---

Report this post to a moderator | IP: Logged

Registered: Jan 2011
Location: Louisiana
Posts: 222

I won't make any predictions about specific teams going into tomorrow, (other than what I have already posted, don't want to jinx anyone) but I will make a couple of generic predictions.

At least one team will do much worse than generally thought. Could be any team from top to bottom.

The way things are going right now, at least one team will be decimated by the flu.

At least one team will do much better than generally thought.

There will be blowouts. Some possibly expected, some absolute stunners.

There will be games won by brilliant shots.

There will be games lost by less than brilliant shots.

There will be a lot of second guessing by posters. (Really a no-brainer, that)

There will be games lost by pickups and wrecks.

There will be no brooms broken by distraught players. That lesson was learned in Vancouver.

The team that wins the gold is the team that earned it. They will absolutely deserve everyone's plaudits.

Each of these teams are under a lot of pressure to perform. If you have never been there, or in a similar situation, you really have no idea.

Report this post to a moderator | IP: Logged

Registered: Feb 2007
Location:
Posts: 631

This is a pretty tough field. I hesitate to make predictions about team Canada, but I could just as easily see them missing the playoffs as I could winning the whole thing. There are at least five teams (Canada, Sweden, Scotland, Switzerland, China) with a legit shot of winning it all. If I had to pick a favourite, right now I like Sweden. This team has had a pretty strong year on tour and dominated this year's European championship... you know, until the final. And 3 of the 4 won last year's European championship. All in all though, a pretty even field, so it's an event I'm definitely looking forward to.

Report this post to a moderator | IP: Logged

Registered: Not Yet
Location:
Posts: N/A

Mel skipping the Germans, nice! That might actually increase their chances to make it to the playoffs compared to a lineup with Andrea skipping them! However, without Andrea, they will not outnerve "better" teams as easily in knock-out matches.

I'm curious about how Heather will start into the RR. Luckily, first game is against Pottinger, "well-known" terrain so to speak. Second game China, still rather conventional team. Very nice draw for them. Would be much more difficult to start against Czech, Korea and Russia. I'd actually expect Canada to go 9-2 and top spot.

Scotland should make it to the play-offs without too many struggles this time, I think. Evie I think payed for her youth and inexperience already and I think she learned from it. Tie with Canada or 8-3.

Sweden: Not sure about them. They lack experience on Canadian arena ice, but their style matches that kind of surface better than for example the Norberg team. I agree with ML here that they might struggle in the first half and have to fight during the final RR matches.

Switzerland: National competition is growing stronger, Miri might not get many more chances for a World final in the future. She better gets her act together. But whom I am lying to ...

China: I saw them playing last week, they were terrible. Even worse than the low standard they showed all season except for Continental Cup. I expect them to start really badly, worse than in the Olympics. And without the third who saved them in Vancouver, they won't recover enough for a play-off spot. 4-7

Report this post to a moderator | IP: 95.91.32.220

Registered: Feb 2009
Location:
Posts: 338

I posted a couple of weeks ago that China was being underrated but I can't ignore the extremely poor performance at a recent event. My guess, their third simply does not call the house very well.

Report this post to a moderator | IP: Logged

Registered: Feb 2009
Location:
Posts: 338

quote:

---

Originally posted by peteski
This is a pretty tough field. I hesitate to make predictions about team Canada, but I could just as easily see them missing the playoffs as I could winning the whole thing. There are at least five teams (Canada, Sweden, Scotland, Switzerland, China) with a legit shot of winning it all. If I had to pick a favourite, right now I like Sweden. This team has had a pretty strong year on tour and dominated this year's European championship... you know, until the final. And 3 of the 4 won last year's European championship. All in all though, a pretty even field, so it's an event I'm definitely looking forward to.

---

Last edited by Nine Ender on 03-17-12 at 02:55PM

Report this post to a moderator | IP: Logged

Registered: Mar 2012
Location: Sydney
Posts: 89

I don't know. I don't think we can write the German women off just because Andrea isn't there. We see right now with the team Andy Kapp left behind that the team is struggling without him. Obviously Andy's energy kept the team going and Andrea's energy no doubt kept the girls going too. I don't know if the absence of Andrea will have the same effect, I guess we can only wait and see. Chemistry shouldn't be an issue and Monika is there as alternate so they will still have her experience.

I think the difference between Andy and Andrea was that Andy Kapp was more often than not winning and losing game on his own, he pretty much had to. Andy was by far the most talented curler on his team once Uli left. That difference in ability isn't there between Andrea and the rest of her team so I guess that's why I have a little more confidence in them.

I don't expect them to make the playoffs, but I think they will still have a respectable week. I guess the biggest question is what kind of game will Melanie call?

Report this post to a moderator | IP: Logged

Registered: Oct 2011
Location:
Posts: 198

Is there anywhere to watch games when Canada isn't playing?

Report this post to a moderator | IP: Logged

Registered: Mar 2012
Location: 185.5 cm
Posts: 65

Hope it's ok to post links like this.

Should get you started.

Report this post to a moderator | IP: Logged

Registered: Jan 2011
Location:
Posts: 1962

For some reason stonepunter's link did not show up.
Maybe this will ttp://www.firstrowsports.eu/watch/113789/1/watch-italy-vs-sweden-(curling)

Report this post to a moderator | IP: Logged

Registered: Not Yet
Location:
Posts: N/A

Germany steal of 2, up 4-1 against Denmark 8th end!!!

Report this post to a moderator | IP: 109.130.117.73

Registered: Mar 2012
Location: Sydney
Posts: 89

Eve was up 3 in 9 but the Russians come back with a draw for 3 to tie it at 7 after 9

Report this post to a moderator | IP: Logged