The 2013 Ford World Men’s Curling Championship will be a process for Canada’s Brad Jacobs.
As he takes to the ice for today’s 2 p.m. opener at Save-on-Foods Memorial Centre along with rinkmates Ryan Fry at third, second E.J. Harnden and lead Ryan Harnden against China’s Rui Liu, it’s not so much about the opponent.
“Who you play really doesn’t matter,” Jacobs said after his practice session on Friday. “You’re playing against curling at 100 per cent. That’s the mark, and if you can stay close to that, you’re going to win a lot of games.
“We expect every team to come out firing against us. We are Team Canada, and we expect nothing less than that,” Jacobs said. “You want to get off to quick start. You never want to come to an event like this and have a few losses in a row. Its tough to go undefeated at an event like this, and we haven’t even thought about that.”
In Liu, Jacobs is facing a rink that recently won the Pomeroy Inn and Suites Prairie Showdown in Grande Prairie, Alta., defeating Winnipeg’s Mike McEwen 5-3 in the final of the World Curling Tour event.
Liu also downed B.C.’s Jim Cotter 5-4, Brad Gushue 6-4 and Steve Laycock 5-3 in the round-robin before dumping 2010 Brier and world champion Kevin Koe 6-4 in the semifinal.
“It’s a great help of ours for our confidence, but that was another game, not the world championship. Here we will just play our game, one by one,” Liu said through an interpreter. “I’m feeling good. We just want to play our game, and we’re not thinking about the result.”
One of China’s coaches, Lorne Hamblin, who is originally from Manitoba, knows it will be a tough test for Liu and his rink of third Xiaoming Xu, second Dexin Ba and lead Jialiang Zang.
“Canada has an outstanding team. We watched them all through the Brier, a great young team,” said Hamblin, who places the Jacobs rink among the favourites along with Scotland, Norway and Sweden.
“Those top four teams are great teams, and if you’re going to beat them on any given day, you’re going to have to play your best game,” said Hamblin, who has worked with the Chinese team since last year. “The No. 1 goal here is the Olympic points, and No. 2 is the medals.”
The Grande Prairie result, however, was encouraging for the group.
“They had a very good spiel in Grande Prairie, then we were in Richmond all last week practising and also at Juan de Fuca. But curling is a game of inches, and it can go either way,” said Hamblin.
Canada wants it to go their way, and that means a quick start in the international event, which begins today with opening ceremonies at 11:30 a.m.
“It’s just going to be nice to play. Usually the first couple of games, you’re learning the ice and making sure you know the rocks,” Fry said.
“We’ve got to go to school tomorrow and learn what the ice is doing and get a handle on it quick because it is a long week. No matter whether you drop a game here or there, you have to compete right through it.
“We’re going into this with all the respect in the world against all the teams we’re playing here. They’ve had some amazing results this year. They are winning out on tour on a consistent basis. Niklas Edin [of Sweden] won last week [in Victoria] and Liu won in Grande Prairie,” the Canadian third said.
“At the beginning of the Olympic rush, these teams are just developing. Now, as you’re getting closer, you’re seeing the product of what these countries are investing in these teams. We’re expecting very tight games against all of them. Hopefully, we can hold our own against the tougher ones.”
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