World Cup Day 2 Seed Bouts Recap

Day two saw the conclusion of the seed rounds, a few hours of quiet while the results were tabulated, and then the beginning of the elimination rounds. Some of the bouts were painfully mismatched due to the way the seed groups were set up (random draw), and some of the teams were seeded rather higher than they should have been, but as the elimination bouts progressed we got a much better idea of which teams knew their derby and which have some room to grow.

We staked out Track 2 on Friday, claiming a spot on the suicide line at turn 1, and our first bout was New Zealand vs Scotland. It started off looking like NZ was going to wipe the floor with Scotland, but then the Scots got a power jam near the end of the first half and brought the score to within ten points. That was, however, the closest they got to beating NZ, and while they put up a good fight and kept the score fairly close, they were never able to bridge the gap. The last whistle blew with the score at 124-111, New Zealand over Scotland.

The next bout was Germany vs. Finland, which was almost an upset. Germany took the first lead on the scoreboard and pulled ahead, but then Finland started grabbing lead jammer again and again and held a ten- or twenty-point lead for most of the first half and into the second. Germany must've had one heck of a pep talk during halftime, though, because ten minutes into the second half, they grabbed a ten-point lead and slowly built it up to end the bout at 104-80.

Our third seed bout on Friday was one of those slaughters we mentioned yesterday. USA took on Scotland, and skated like they weren't even there. The final score was 435-1, and Team Scotland was heard cheering, "we got ONE! We got ONE!" Later that day we found ourselves sitting behind Team Scotland on the bleachers, and they were in high spirits, so these girls know how to see a loss in a positive light and keep having fun.

Our final seed bout was France vs. Sweden, which, while not as rough as some of the bouts, was still a pretty decisive game. France took an early but small lead, and then Sweden grabbed it and didn't let go for the rest of the bout. The final score was 110-46, Sweden over France. France clearly has a way to go when it comes to their derby strategy, but they played their hearts out in every bout, and were clearly honored to be there.

The seeds were announced after a break, and while the calculations were going on, we sat in the car and tried to guess where each team would fall on the list. We did fairly well, getting six out of the thirteen teams right, and only being off by one slot for another three.

Time for breakfast, so we'll cover the elimination bouts in the next post. If you're not here in Toronto today, be sure to stream the final bouts live on DNN!