BEIJING - Members of the Team USA men's curling rink believe the competition at this Olympics might be tougher than any other.
That means teams will pay for their mistakes, and the USA experienced that on Sunday at the National Aquatics Center.
Early mistakes put them in a six-point hole against Canada that was insurmountable. The 10-5 loss dropped them to 2-3 in round robin play with four games to go. Even at just one game under .500, Team USA was looking up at most of the field with an evening match here against China scheduled to begin at 6:05 a.m. Minnesota time on Sunday.
This is a flashback to four years ago when Team USA started 2-4 but won its final three matches of round robin play to reach the knockout round, where the Americans rode a wave to the gold medal.
"I just draw on the confidence of this team, honestly, because I know how resilient we are and be how great of players we are," said skip John Shuster, of Chisholm. "And, honestly, I'm seeing the rocks coming out of people's hands great.
"So when that's happening, it's only a matter of time before, everything starts clicking, and who knows?"
Team USA never recovered from a rough second end in which Duluth's Chris Plys failed to draw in and Shuster missed two takeouts as Canada scored four points to take a 5-0 lead at the time.
"We ended up having three misses in a row in our back end, which, you know, three misses in an end, you're gonna give up some points," Matt Hamilton said, "and the timing was about as bad as it could have been."
Down 7-1 through five ends, the USA put up three in the sixth but got no closer.
Despite dropping to 2-3, the team cracked smiles throughout the match and didn't appear to be stressed about their round-robin record. Alternate Colin Hufman came in after the fifth to get his first taste of Olympic play.
Team USA knows what it's like to trail the field at an Olympics. Now it must show how that can be a strength.
"We knew coming in here this was gonna be the deepest field in Olympic history," Shuster said. "That's just because they're everybody in the world. including us, is all getting better."
