SYDNEY, N.S. — The Canadian team’s numbers speak for themselves at the world women’s curling championship this week.
A stellar 11-1 round-robin record. An overall shooting percentage of 88.4 per cent. An impressive 96 points scored to just 53 against.
Skip Rachel Homan, third Tracy Fleury, second Emma Miskew and lead Sarah Wilkes ran the table at the national championship and they’re in strong form again here at Centre 200.
Canada secured the top seed Friday afternoon with an efficient 8-2 win over Scotland’s Rebecca Morrison. The result locked up a semifinal berth for the Ottawa-based side and ensured they’ll be playing for a medal on Sunday.
“The bigger the game, the better they play,” said team coach Don Bartlett. “And you can’t teach that.”
Homan scored three in the second end and stole a pair in the fifth when Morrison was light on a draw. Scotland conceded after the Canadian skip drew for a pair in the seventh.
In the evening, South Korea edged Canada 6-5 in an essentially meaningless night game for the host side that served as a playoff tune-up.
As the first seed, Canada will open playoff games with hammer and have choice of stone colour.
Canada has been tested at times throughout the week. Homan opened with a 7-6 win over Sweden’s Anna Hasselborg and needed an extra end for an 8-7 win over Italy’s Stefania Constantini a few days later.
A plucky Turkish side was also a handful, forcing Homan to make a pair of tricky soft-weight raises in the 10th end for a 9-5 win that was closer than the score might suggest.
The Wilkes-Miskew front end has been in top form and Fleury has consistently set up her skip. Homan has appeared cool and confident no matter the type of shot required.
“We’ve made the big shots when we’ve needed them,” Homan said. “I think it’s some of the best curling that we’ve ever had as a team and hopefully we can continue that.”
The loss to Gim ended Homan’s overall win streak at 27 games.
Defending champion Silvana Tirinzoni of Switzerland beat Sweden 4-2 to secure the other direct semifinal berth as the second seed at 10-2. Italy (10-2) earned the third seed after a 10-8 win over Japan’s Miyu Ueno and South Korea (10-2) took the fourth seed.
In Saturday’s qualification games, Italy will meet sixth-seeded Madeleine Dupont of Denmark (6-6) and South Korea will play Sweden (7-5). The winners will advance to the semifinals later in the day.
Medal games are set for Sunday.
Homan’s first loss of the competition dropped her overall season record to 60-6.
Gim made a draw in the eighth end to force Homan to try an angle-raise with her last throw. The Canadian skip gave up her first steal since opening night when her rock rolled just under the shot stone.
Homan settled for a single in the ninth when her draw was light and Gim used hammer for a game-winning hit in the 10th.
In the other late games, Tabitha Peterson of the United States dumped New Zealand’s Jessica Smith 9-3 and Norway’s Marianne Roervik dropped an 8-6 decision to Estonia’s Liisa Turmann.
The bottom seven teams in the 13-team field included the U.S. (6-6), Scotland (5-7), Norway (4-8), Turkey’s Dilsat Yildiz (3-9), Japan (3-9), Estonia (2-10) and New Zealand (1-11).
Brad Gushue of St. John’s, N.L., will skip the Canadian team at the March 30-April 7 world men’s curling championship in Schaffhausen, Switzerland.
This report by The Canadian Press was first published March 22, 2024.
LONDON – Canada will meet three-time champion Germany in the Davis Cup quarterfinals in Malaga, Spain this November.
Canada secured a berth in the quarterfinals — also called The Final 8 Knockout Stage — with a 2-1 win over Britain last weekend in Manchester, England.
World No. 21 Felix Auger-Aliassime of Montreal anchored a five-player squad that included Denis Shapovalov of Richmond Hill, Ont., Gabriel Diallo of Montreal, Alexis Galarneau of Laval, Que., and Vasek Pospisil of Vernon, B.C.
The eight-team draw for the quarterfinals was completed Thursday at International Tennis Federation headquarters.
Defending champion Italy will play Argentina, the United States will meet Australia and Spain will take on the Netherlands. Schedule specifics have yet to be released but the Final 8 will be played Nov. 19-24.
Tim Puetz and Kevin Krawietz were unbeaten in doubles play last week to help Germany reach the quarterfinals. The country’s top singles player — second-ranked Alex Zverev — did not play.
The Canadians defeated Germany in the quarterfinals en route to their lone Davis Cup title in 2022. Germany won titles in 1988, ’89 and ’93.
This report by The Canadian Press was first published Sept. 19, 2024.
Canada, fuelled by a 2-1 win over the U.S. and scoreless draw with Mexico, has jumped two places to No. 38 in the FIFA men’s world rankings released Thursday.
Of the top six CONCACAF teams, Canada was the only one to move up. Mexico was unchanged at No. 17 while the U.S. and Panama each fell two rungs to No. 18 and 37, respectively
Costa Rica slipped one spot to No. 50 and Jamaica two places to No. 61.
It marks Canada’s highest ranking under coach Jesse Marsch, who was hired in mid-May when the Canadians were ranked 50th. Since then, the team has climbed to No. 49, 48, 40 and now 38.
Canada has been as high as No. 33 in the men’s ranking, achieved in February 2022 under John Herdman with Canada, named the “Most Improved Side” in 2021 by FIFA, turning heads with an unbeaten run in CONCACAF World Cup qualifying.
The new rankings encompass 184 internationals involving teams from all six confederations including 2026 World Cup qualifiers in Asia, Oceania and South America.
The top 10 was unchanged with Argentina ahead of France, Spain, England, Brazil, Belgium, the Netherlands, Portugal, Colombia and Italy. But the gap at the top is closing with Argentina losing 2-1 away to Colombia and 3-1 at home to Italy.
Teams 10 through 15 were also unchanged. But there was movement after that in the form of Japan (, up two), Iran (No. 19, up one) and Denmark (No. 20, up one). Egypt (No. 31), Ivory Coast (No. 33), Tunisia (No. 36) and Algeria (No. 41) all jumped five places while Greece (No. 48) climbed six spots.
The biggest movers were Brunei Darussalam (No. 183) and Samoa (No. 185), who vaulted seven spots on the back of two wins apiece.
Qatar suffered the biggest drop, tumbling 10 places to No. 44.
San Marino remains at the bottom of the rankings in 210th place despite recording its first victory in more than 20 years, San Marino defeated Liechtenstein 1-0 on Sept. 5, ending a 140-game winless run since a 1-0 decision over the same opponent in April 2004.
Liechtenstein fell four places to No. 203.
Canada’s next match is an Oct. 15 friendly against Panama at Toronto’s BMO Field. The next men’s ranking will be released Oct. 24.
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This report by The Canadian Press was first published Sept. 19, 2024
HOUSTON (AP) — Brian White scored in the second half to rally the Vancouver Whitecaps to a 1-1 draw with the Houston Dynamo on Wednesday night.
Houston (12-9-8) took a 1-0 lead into halftime after Ezequiel Ponce scored on a penalty kick in the seventh minute of stoppage time. Ponce’s third goal this season came after Amine Bassi drew a foul on Whitecaps midfielder Pedro Vite following a video review. It was Ponce’s sixth career appearance, all starts.
Vancouver (13-8-7) scored the equalizer in the 73rd minute when White, who entered in the 60th, used assists from Fafá Picault and Ryan Gauld to find the net for the 13th time this season. Picault’s assist was his fifth, matching his career high for a single season. Gauld’s assist gives him a career-best 13 on the season.
Yohei Takaoka, who had clean sheets in his last three starts, finished with one save in goal for the Whitecaps.
Steve Clark saved three shots for the Dynamo, who remain one point behind Vancouver in the Western Conference standings.
Houston, which was coming off a 4-1 victory over Real Salt Lake, has allowed just 33 goals this season.
Vancouver — 6-2-2 in its last 10 matches overall — leads the all-time series 10-9-6.
The Whitecaps remain on the road to play the Los Angeles Galaxy on Saturday. The Dynamo travel to play Austin FC on Saturday.
