Dan Rafael was kidding around after watching his Czech Republic rink, skipped by Jiri Snitil, hand sa国际传媒鈥檚 Brad Jacobs his first loss of the 2013 Ford World Men鈥檚 Curling Championship on Tuesday morning, a 6-4 defeat.
Or maybe the Montreal native wasn鈥檛.
鈥淚鈥檓 starting to wonder, with my record against sa国际传媒 with whatever country I鈥檓 with, maybe the CCA [Canadian Curling Association] should get me a desk job and get me out of the way,鈥� said Rafael, a bit of a hired gun as a curling coach. 鈥淭hey could just stick me in a closet somewhere.鈥�
Rafael led both the Chinese men and women鈥檚 teams for years before moving to the Italian federation and eventually joining the Czechs last fall.
He was with China when Bingyu (Betty) Wang knocked off sa国际传媒鈥檚 Jennifer Jones in the world women鈥檚 event in Vernon, sa国际传媒, in 2008 鈥� Jones鈥檚 first loss of the round-robin 鈥� and also defeated Cheryl Bernard (for her first loss) at the 2010 Olympics.
Under Rafael鈥檚 guidance, China鈥檚 Fengchun Wang also defeated Kevin Martin 鈥� sa国际传媒鈥檚 rep at the 2008 world men鈥檚 in Grand Forks, N.D., 鈥� 6-5 in an extra end. Coincidentally, that was Martin鈥檚 first and only round-robin loss.
鈥淚t just seems like whenever sa国际传媒 loses its first game, its against a team that I鈥檓 coaching,鈥� said Rafael, enjoying the limelight, however brief it was as his crew lost 6-5 to Denmark in the afternoon.
Meanwhile, Jacobs and his rink of third Ryan Fry, second E.J. Harnden and lead Ryan Harnden bounced back with a 10-7 victory against 2010 Olympic silver medallist Thomas Ulsrud of Norway in the evening draw at Save-on-Foods Memorial Centre to move to 6-1 in the standings.
sa国际传媒 is alone in first place with Scotland, Sweden and Denmark at 5-2.
鈥淚t鈥檚 nice to split today. I think we would have taken a split today, to be honest with you, maybe the other way around,鈥� said Jacobs. 鈥淎t least we came out and played well tonight.鈥�
But the morning shocker, especially the Rafael angle, was the interesting tale of the day.
Bingyu Wang did lose her very first game back in the 2009 worlds in South Korea to sa国际传媒, but eventually bounced back to claim 12 straight victories and the eventual world title with Rafael.
So Tuesday shouldn鈥檛 have been a big surprise, as the Rafael curse (of sorts) rose again with Snitil toppling Jacobs.
鈥淔ortunately for us, Brad was a little bit off his game,鈥� said Rafael, who is trying to instill more of a take-no-prisoner attitude in the Czech crew. 鈥淗e left the door open for us a few times and thank God we took advantage. That was the key. A lot of times we tend to have this attitude that, they miss and we can miss, too. You have to bury the guy.鈥�
Snitil did just that, killing a pair of Jacobs鈥� counters in the 10th end.
鈥淲e talked about it. We thought about it a lot and we were angry about it for a few hours after the game,鈥� Jacobs said of the initial loss. 鈥淛ust for not playing as well as we could.鈥�
They came back with a solid effort against Ulsrud, who fell to 4-3.
sa国际传媒 now plays Japan (2-4) this morning at 8:30, and then faces Russia (1-6) at 1:30 p.m.
