Italy 10, Team USA 4
John Shuster’s go-big-or-go-home mentality has again come back to bite Team USA.
Trailing 6-4 with one stone remaining in the eighth end of Tuesday’s game against Italy, Shuster faced a house that had Italy on for three points. The U.S. skip went for a risky shot for a takeout that, if successful, would have given his team two points. Instead, his throw clipped his own stone and took both out, leaving a steal of four for Italy.
With the steal, Italy went up 10-4, forcing the U.S. to concede the final two ends and take the loss.
Italy took a 3-2 lead in the third and stayed ahead for the rest of the game. The U.S.’s only points after scoring two in the second came on just single-point ends in the fourth and sixth.
Italy led 5-3 at the halfway break.
Team USA benefitted from a successful risky shot by Shuster in a 7-4 win over Switzerland in the previous game, but have also now lost a second contest from a costly mistake on big shots. In the U.S.'s loss to Canada earlier this week, the team gave up four points in the second after back-to-back misses by Chris Plys and Shuster.
Team USA falls to 4-4 with the loss. They will finish round-robin play on Wednesday at 8:05 p.m. against Denmark.
Italy (2-6) will play Denmark next at 1:50 a.m. ET Wednesday, and finish round robin play later than day against Norway.
