World Men’s Curling Championship medal round preview
The hardware will be handed out Sunday at the World Men’s Curling Championship in Moose Jaw, Sask.
Canada’s Brad Jacobs and China’s Xiaoming Xu battle in the bronze medal game (11 a.m. ET / 9 a.m. MT) while Switzerland’s Yannick Schwaller meets Scotland’s Bruce Mouat with the gold on the line (5 p.m. ET / 3 p.m. MT).
Who will step onto the podium? Here’s a tale of the tape for the two medal games.
Gold Medal Game: Scotland vs. Switzerland
| Mouat | Head-to-Head Record | Schwaller |
|---|---|---|
| 18 | Career | 10 |
| 4 | This Season | 3 |
Mouat and Schwaller faced off for the first time a decade ago in juniors. Now, they meet for gold at the World Men’s Curling Championship.
Although the world No. 1 Mouat has the edge in their head-to-head battles over the years and this season, Schwaller was victorious in their most recent meeting, scoring an 11-7 victory Wednesday during round-robin play.
Scotland opened with the hammer but was forced to a single in the first. Switzerland scored three in the second and never trailed again. Team Schwaller (93 per cent) outshot Team Mouat (83 per cent) by 10 percentage points during the match. Benoît Schwarz-van Berkel, who throws last rocks for Schwaller, curled 92 per cent and was perfect on his seven draw shots.
Switzerland finished pool play in second place with a 9-3 record and received a bye to Saturday afternoon’s semifinals. Schwaller started with the hammer against China, converted for a deuce off the bat in the first end and never relinquished the lead. Switzerland scored another pair in the fifth and stole two points in the sixth en route to a 7-3 victory. Team Schwaller was sharp, shooting 90 per cent in the game, with Xu’s squad at 81 per cent.
Schwaller, No. 4 in the world rankings, will now play in the biggest game of his career as he looks to win Switzerland’s first gold medal at the World Men’s Curling Championship in 33 years. By comparison, the country has won eight gold medals at the World Women’s Curling Championship since 2012.
Schwarz-van Berkel, who has earned five bronze medals in his career, will also play in his first final at the event.
Scotland ended pool play in fifth place at 8-4 and on a downer with a disappointing 9-2 loss to China. Mouat had his worst game of the week, shooting 66 per cent.
That set up a qualification round showdown Saturday morning against Sweden’s Niklas Edin. Mouat edged Edin 8-7 to oust the defending champ and advance to the semifinals against Canada.
The 2023 world champ Mouat flipped the hammer fast, forcing Canada to one in the first end and converted with a deuce in the second to jump ahead. Jacobs pulled off an unreal cross-house double to get two in the seventh and forced Mouat to a single in the eighth to trail 5-4 as it looked like the momentum had swung. A blank in the ninth end allowed Jacobs to retain the hammer for the 10th, but he wasn’t content with drawing for the tying single and attempted a tricky triple takeout that missed. Mouat tacked two stolen points on the board to win 7-4.
Third Grant Hardie was practically perfect shooting a team-leading 96 per cent, including 99 per cent on 17 takeouts.
Mouat and his squad have returned to form in the playoffs and look more like the team that was nearly unstoppable winning three consecutive Grand Slam of Curling championships earlier this season.
Bronze Medal Game: Canada vs. China
| Jacobs | Head-to-Head Record | Xu |
|---|---|---|
| 1 | Career | 0 |
| 1 | This Season | 0 |
Their round-robin encounter Thursday morning was actually their first meeting ever with Jacobs rolling to an 8-2 victory. It was a textbook start for Jacobs, scoring deuces in the first and third ends while forcing Xu to singles in the second and fourth. After adding a single in the fifth, Jacobs stole two points in the sixth and one in the seventh to ice the game.
Canada, 11-2 over the week after finishing first in pool play, will start with the hammer again when they face for the bronze medal and look to wrap things up on a positive note.
Both of Canada’s losses came against Scotland as Mouat has been Jacobs’s kryptonite with a career head-to-head record of 12-2 (that includes two games, one win each, last season when Jacobs skipped Reid Carruthers’s team).
The world No. 3 Jacobs will look to add to his medal haul, having earned silver in his previous appearance at the world championship in 2013.
Jacobs has the overwhelming edge in experience, winning Olympic gold and seven Grand Slam of Curling championships as well, but Xu shouldn’t be overlooked.
Xu, ranked 23rd in the world, has claimed one medal on Canadian ice already this season, capturing gold at the Pan Continental Curling Championships in November in Lacombe, Alta., and is now aiming to take China’s first medal ever at the World Men’s Curling Championship.
The victory over Scotland in the round-robin finale boosted China, 8-4 in pool play, into the third seed for the qualification round against Norway. Xu won 8-7, however, the match wasn’t without controversy as it appeared China touched their shooter during their first skip stone of the opening end.
Here’s hoping there isn’t a similar situation in the bronze medal game as it could get ugly.
Like the game against Canada, China was unable to generate much offence against Switzerland in the semifinals. China was limited to three singles while giving up a steal of two in the sixth end.
Xu will be in tough to score multiples against Jacobs, who holds a tournament-leading 84 per cent force efficiency.
Maybe the best offence is a good defence? Perhaps as China has stolen 13 ends during the tournament, good for second among all teams this week, but Canada has given up the fewest steals with three.