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What an amazing kickoff next weekend.

The Queen of Mean, Rachel Homan vs.

The Scottish Princess


They'll probably meet again in the page!

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quote:

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Originally posted by Manitoba Legend
What an amazing kickoff next weekend.

The Queen of Mean, Rachel Homan vs.

The Scottish Princess


They'll probably meet again in the page!

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It always stirs my patriotic fervor when I can root for newbies at the Worlds, in this case both men and women. As much as I admire Glenn and Jenn I am glad they are not representing Canada - we have some fresh blood.

And I can't wait to see our gals take on Princess Eve and the delectable Anna.

Where did they get that pic of the Scottish team - Eve looks about 14!

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Princess is one of the few squads who will be able to withstand the vicious assaults The Means Girls (Homan) inflict other teams at the worlds. I can hear cries of 'thats not fair' and 'they're too good' all week long.

Princess M and Anna might be able to hold up.

Andrea Schoepp, the sour German leader might also be capable of knocking off Team Mean in the round-robin, only if Rachel & the pak have an off-game.

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The only team I can see standing up to Rachel is Scotland. Eve and her team can stand up to the kind of shot making rachel and her team can produce and match it..maybe even surpass it.

Sweden might be the other team to look out for and maybe (and its a big maybe) switzerland. However i put a huge asterisk by switzerland because silvana has historically flopped at the world championships, we'll see if she does this year again.

Russia has a good team but they wont be able to withstand the onslaught of team homan and neither will china who have gone backwards. In her Golden years Andrea would have been a good match for rachel but she's nowhere near her best

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quote:

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Originally posted by misty1
The only team I can see standing up to Rachel is Scotland. Eve and her team can stand up to the kind of shot making rachel and her team can produce and match it..maybe even surpass it.

Sweden might be the other team to look out for and maybe (and its a big maybe) switzerland. However i put a huge asterisk by switzerland because silvana has historically flopped at the world championships, we'll see if she does this year again.

Russia has a good team but they wont be able to withstand the onslaught of team homan and neither will china who have gone backwards. In her Golden years Andrea would have been a good match for rachel but she's nowhere near her best

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I dont know legend, i think scotland matches up quite well with rachel. Eve has given her alot of trouble in the past and probably should have beaten her at the grand slam a while back but had a late collapse..if memory serves they'd been outplaying team homan up until a big score for rachel

If i break down the line up i'd rate the advantages like this:

lead - about even. Claire is a quite underestimated lead. she's very consistent. I've never seen her attempt a tick shot though

second - team homan. Alison definately has the edge here over vicky who's probably the most up and down player on eve's team

third - team muirhead. I rate anna slightly better then emma at third

skip - dead even. Both can make just about everything, both are fearless and both are capable of adapting their games to the opposition. Difference is that rachel is more willing to do it while eve is more stubborn

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What happened to Cecilia Ostlund? Haven't heard much about her the last couple of years.

Same with the Dupont-Jensen team from Denmark. Where have they vanished to?

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quote:

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Originally posted by misty1
I dont know legend, i think scotland matches up quite well with rachel. Eve has given her alot of trouble in the past and probably should have beaten her at the grand slam a while back but had a late collapse..if memory serves they'd been outplaying team homan up until a big score for rachel

If i break down the line up i'd rate the advantages like this:

lead - about even. Claire is a quite underestimated lead. she's very consistent. I've never seen her attempt a tick shot though

second - team homan. Alison definately has the edge here over vicky who's probably the most up and down player on eve's team

third - team muirhead. I rate anna slightly better then emma at third

skip - dead even. Both can make just about everything, both are fearless and both are capable of adapting their games to the opposition. Difference is that rachel is more willing to do it while eve is more stubborn

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quote:

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Originally posted by nelsosi
What happened to Cecilia Ostlund? Haven't heard much about her the last couple of years.

Same with the Dupont-Jensen team from Denmark. Where have they vanished to?

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quote:

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Originally posted by misty1


Cecilia is still curling with anette and they actually won the swedish national championship this year, defeating sigrifdsson in the final.

I suspect anette will retire very soon since her goal was to get to the 2014 olympics and it really doesnt look likely.

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quote:

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Originally posted by Manitoba Legend


You've probably seen Princess play far more games than I have. I suspect she's had to prepare her team far differently for Rachel than for a known commodity like JJ, who's game is almost always the same, end after end of offense. Rachel has a more balanced approach and far better coaching which in the end might be the essential difference.

You rate Anna ahead of emma, if you're right its going to be inconsequential as the difference is tiny (probably under 2% in the RR).

I would actually deem Ali K as the weakest link (don't get me wrong, she's still super skilled) on Canada. She was a bit puzzled during portions of the STOH, especially when Askin & Officer confronted her.

I would say Weagle is the secret weapon never seen at a world women's championship. Claire might be underrated but she'll have to come up huge to stay with Lisa.

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quote:

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Originally posted by nelsosi

Those two sentences don't make sense together. She won the national championship, but the olympics are unlikely? How does Sweden choose its olympic team?

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Thanks. I hate those subjective selection processes. Very unfair to the curlers.

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It's déjà vu time - all over again. This is the time of the year when we are told that our Canadian girls are so much better than the opposition their superiority will be clearly evident. True, in the recent past Canadian women have done well at the World's in the round robin - and then made a right horlicks of things in the playoffs. Let's hope it doesn't happen this year, but Ms Jones and Mr Howard can certainly tell you in recent experience of how you can win the round robin and then quickly lose it all.

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quote:

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Originally posted by greenroad


The showcase draw should be on the last day, not first, when 1st place is on the line.

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Originally posted by jhcurl


The best prepared team with a lot of local knowledge will do well. Do not be surprised when Russia makes a run.

So, my final four - Canada, Scotland, Russia, US, not in any order.

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The russian team always seems to do well on european ice but struggle on canadian ice. They could finally do well here but i dont think they'll be any real threat to canada

i also wouldnt be surprised if the opening game is a blow out either way. Both eve and rachel play a very risky style of game and while it works out for them alot it can also result in some really ugly scores

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The two best teams this year are Homan & Muirhead, thats a given. (Even though its Rachel's first appearance on the world women's stage)

Schoepp will be poised to do her usual tricks.. . . garbage type curling by her front end and then some trickery from the third or skip as she somehow manages to sock one in there.

Will miss Lady Ott but Tirinzoni is a solid Swiss rep and they will contend for a medal (probably bronze)

Team Russia is the one I'm looking forward to as they are rapidly catching on to elite status.

The rest, including the americans will have a nice paid holiday in Latvia.

I neglected a couple teams in my analysis. Lady Bang Bang (Wang) will be lucky to get to .500

The great danes will accord themselves well, but anything above .500 is a bonus.

I haven't seen a ton of Margaretha Sigfriddson games but anyone Peja picks over Annette Norberg must be decent. Don't think she's in Homan's league though.

Final predictions (early)

Rachel - Russia - Princess - Switzerland

I'll reserve judgement on Schopps german forces until I see whether her young players have matured into competent and skilled players.

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Canada *****Rachel Homan
China *****Wang Bingyu
Denmark *****Lene Nielsen
Germany *****Andrea Schöpp
Italy *****Diana Gaspari
Japan *****Satsuki Fujisawa
Latvia *****Iveta Staša-Šaršūne
Russia *****Anna Sidorova
Scotland *****Eve Muirhead
Sweden *****Margaretha Sigfridsson
Switzerland *****Silvana Tirinzoni
United States *****Erika Brown

I have a couple of questions. Is Latvia in as Host Country, or did they qualify cleanly though the Europeans. If the former, who got bumped? (Czech Republic? Norway?)

Still hurting that Korea didn't get in out of Asia Pacific.

Feeling a hum from the Brown Team. Lots of Oly and World experience at 3rd on that team. Perennial dark horse.

Nice to see Gaspari has qualified. I thought she'd faded.

I call Margaretha victorious in the final against either Rachel or Eve... prob Eve. Rachel may have a few gremlins to expel during this event. Exciting. Preview to Sochi.

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quote:

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Originally posted by nelski
Canada *****Rachel Homan
China *****Wang Bingyu
Denmark *****Lene Nielsen
Germany *****Andrea Schöpp
Italy *****Diana Gaspari
Japan *****Satsuki Fujisawa
Latvia *****Iveta Staša-Šaršūne
Russia *****Anna Sidorova
Scotland *****Eve Muirhead
Sweden *****Margaretha Sigfridsson
Switzerland *****Silvana Tirinzoni
United States *****Erika Brown

I have a couple of questions. Is Latvia in as Host Country, or did they qualify cleanly though the Europeans. If the former, who got bumped? (Czech Republic? Norway?)

Still hurting that Korea didn't get in out of Asia Pacific.

Feeling a hum from the Brown Team. Lots of Oly and World experience at 3rd on that team. Perennial dark horse.

Nice to see Gaspari has qualified. I thought she'd faded.

I call Margaretha victorious in the final against either Rachel or Eve... prob Eve. Rachel may have a few gremlins to expel during this event. Exciting. Preview to Sochi.

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I think many of you are underrating Team Sigfridsson. That is all I will say for now.

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quote:

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Originally posted by guycan
Latvia qualified as host country. They did however win the B Pool of the Europeans over Norway, and would have challenged Germany for the final spot if they weren't hosting. Since they were the hosts, the WCC Challenge was not played.

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This year's field is very strong. Only a couple of easy games. Here's my rundown:

1. Canada: Canada's four year "drought" between world titles is the longest it's ever had, but they have a pretty good shot at breaking it this year. I've bought in on this team being the best in the world. Their season so far has been ridiculous. That said, winning in this field is not going to be a piece of cake. This field is certainly stronger than this year's Scotties and that's not something you could have always said. While I make Canada the favourites, their chances of taking the title is certainly lower than 50%.

2. Sweden: Another strong year for this team. I really enjoy the aggressive game they play. I can't wait to watch the Canada-Sweden game. They did beat Homan earlier this year in their only matchup. The one concern about this team might be their big game performance. They've been in the 1-2 game in the last two Euro championships and the last world championships and failed to win the whole thing. Still, it's not exactly like they choked in the world final last year.

3. Switzerland: Tirinzoni did struggle at her previous Worlds appearances, but that was a while ago and this is only half the same team. Besides that, their last two years on tour have been fantastic. I certainly expect them to contend this year.

4. Russia: I was very impressed by what I saw from this team during their run to the European championship this year. They always had the talent, but with Thomas Lips as their new coach, they don't make some of the inexplicable strategy mistakes they used to make. I would not be surprised to see them in the final. They did, however finish ninth in the worlds last year.

5. Scotland: This may seem low, but to be honest anyone from two to five is pretty interchangeable. However, this team has been pretty inconsistent this year. For example, they beat Homan this year (also lost a couple times) but lost twice to the Japanese team and also lost to the Latvian team. I think the three european teams I have ranked above have clearly had stronger years. However, this team obviously has tons of talent. Really, there are five great teams in the event.

6. China: I'd say China is the wildcard this year. I really don't know which Chinese team we'll see. Will we see their World Championship form or their 3-8 form from last year? I think I'd lean to the former, if only for the fact that they're back to their World Championship lineup. The only problem is that it's pretty crowded at the top.

7. USA: This team is probably the best option the Americans have, but again, it's pretty crowded at the top. I see this team as being solidly in the middle of the pack.

8. Denmark: This actually feels a little low, but I'm not sure who I should put them ahead of. They can contend for a playoff spot, but it will be tough.

9. Japan: I don't know much about this team, but in three tour events they have a pretty strong record, including those two wins against Muirhead. I don't know if I should continue to underestimate the Asian teams after Korea's run last year. We'll see.

10. Germany: They are capable of biting one of the good teams, but they've had a pretty lousy year including a poor showing at the European championship that almost cost them an appearance at this year's worlds. They just seem to be stagnating.

11. Italy: They're just not at the level of the competition in this field. They just don't play enough.

12. Latvia: They will be lucky to get a win, but I hope they do get one.

Five great teams with another three pretty good ones. Should be a great event.

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The "Homer" is coming out...

I know there is alot of hate to the Flowers right now. They did not really impress many in the tour play and the attention is on Homan v. Muirhead v. Sigfriddson...

I have them finishing 7 & 4 with an outside chance at 8 & 3...

The losses coming from Homan, Muirhead and Sigfridsson with the 4th loss to Sidarova. They are the strongest teams plus Russia gives Bingyu fits for some reason...

Factors that lead me to believe this team will not repeat its 2012 performance:

1. Return of Coach Weidong Tan. In 2011, they changed to Wei Zhang and added the Hambleins in 2012 and started to tinker with the lineup.

2. Return of Yin Liu at Vice. Bingyu is comfortable with Yin as her Vice as opposed to Sun Yue (not playing this year), Qingshaung and Yan.

3. The positions are firm, Bingyu at Skip, Yin at Vice, Qingshaung at 2nd, Yan at Lead. Jinli can play either front end position if needed now. She's been the 5th for the Flowers for 5 years.

4. No mixing up the lineup the month before the Worlds. Not sure what they (Zhang and the Hambelins) were thinking in Lethbridge. It did not work.

5. Playing desperate to make it to Sochi. With only 2 qualification points, the Flowers will not squander a chance to automatically qualify for Sochi. Tan claims they need a Top 2 finish. I think Top 4 gets them in.

6. Competition is not as strong as last year's worlds. No Ott, No South Korea. Japan's hard to gauge with Fujisawa playing in her first WWCC. Italy dumped Raphael who would have given them tips on beating the Flowers. Latvia thank you for being hosts.

7. Personal... Bingyu's getting married in the summer. Yin has been webcaming to see her 1 year old daughter... I don't think any of the Flowers wants to add more training to a busy off season in the event they need to play in the last chance tourney in December.

That's my $0.02 (rounded to 0 now) no more pennies in Canada for this China Supporter...

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