Hi everyone!
Now we’re finally on our way to Baden, Switzerland, for the first event of the 2013/14 season. We’ve had a few great weeks of practice and we feel we’re in good shape for the upcoming event. On our way to Baden we’ll pass Södertälje to collect a few things from Goldline and then sleep over in Stockholm at Christoffer’s brother’s ”mansion”.
As we mentioned in the previous post, the entire national squad was gathered in Karlstad for some information, practice and friendly matches. On the saturday we went up against the Swedish womens team for the Sochi Olympics, Team Sigfridsson. We were in some deep trouble in the 2nd end, but managed to come out with a steal for a 3-0 lead instead of 4-2 down. We sealed the game in the 5th with a 5-ender to make it 9-1. On the sunday we went up against our friends, biggest rivals and reigning world champs – Team Edin. A tricky first end with very fast ice ended with a 2-pointer for us. Team Edin blanked the 2nd end and were forced to 1 in the 3rd. Surprisingly, the game ended after 4 ends when we managed to get a 6-pointer – an 8-1 victory.
On monday (instead of friday, as was planned before) we had our fitness test together with Cissi Östlund, Sara Carlsson and the entire Team Edin. Kristian could unfortunately not take part due to a bad knee and a sore shoulder. For the rest of us the tests went great. All of us had a couple of excercises where we smashed our own personal bests.
You’ll hear more from us during the weekend!
/Lit CC Team Eriksson
Not too many updates on the blog as of late, but soon the season starts and you’ll get to hear more from us.
For those of you who follow us on our twitter-page might have heard of our new sponsor – KMTI. KMTI is basically a fitness center where we get the honor of lifting weights for free. Lots of fun! The center is family-owned and was established in Karlstad in 1982. Just a few years ago they moved to a new location and we get to workout in new and great facilities.
On the 30th of august the season of 2013/14 starts in Baden, Switzerland. We’ve had ice to practice on for roughly three weeks now, including two meltdowns due to thunder damaging the electricity output. However, we’re psyched on getting things started. You can follow the event here: http://www.badenmasters.ch/rr_group_c.php
The upcoming weekend we’ll take part in a camp for the national squad. National coach, Peja Lindholm, will introduce what is going on for the upcoming season and what he expects from every team in the squad. On friday we’ll also have a test to check our physical condition.
We hope you’re all good and we’ll see you out there on the ice very soon!!
Lit Curling / Team Eriksson
Yesterday we were in Östersund and met Ingemar and Micke, our two mental/group dynamics coaches. After a morning of summarising the season it was time for lunch. We went to Östersund – Frösö golf club. What a beautiful place! The first hole is appointed to the tee with best view throughout Sweden! Just next to the first tee is the ranche, that’s the place we were at… One thing is for sure, we are better curlers! Here are some pictures to laugh at
After a couple of buckets out it in the woods and a lot of laughs it was time to go back to work. We went to Sports Gym and did a physical test together. A few personal best for all of us! It’s looking better and better for every day. Now we just want the curling season to start!
No, we haven’t applied for ”Sweden’s got talent” or anything like it – that much fun you’ll never have whilst following us!
Actually, the word ”talent” is used by the Swedish Olympic Committee (SOK) for young athletes whom SOK think have a chance at competing for Sweden in an Olympics within the next 4-8 years. These, so called talents, are selected into the ”Talent Programme” at SOK and get support through fundings, coaching and training.
We’re telling you all this because we have some great news for us and our fans. All members of Team Eriksson have been selected to be a part of the ”Talent Programme”, which is a great opportunity for the team. It’s great to know that the most important organization within Sweden for Olympic sports believe in us and want to help us on our journey towards the 2018 Olympics.
As if we weren’t psyched enough for the upcoming season, these news have definitely made us impatient and we can’t wait for the season to start in Baden, Switzerland, at the end of August.
Now we’ll get back to our pre-season training. See you soon!
/Team Eriksson
We finished the Victoria curling classic with a record of 3 wins and 3 losses. We won against Rob Fowler, USA’s Brady Clark and Yusuke Morozumi of Japan. The last two played at the World Championship the week after. The three losses came to Mike Mcewen, Steve Petryk and Kevin Martin. You can’t ask to beat them the first time you play them. A great experience for us. We had a lot of fun that week in Canada playing some of the best teams in the world! We really hope that we can come back next season.
After that three of us stayed in Canada, Oskar as Alternate for Niklas Edin’s rink during the World Championship. Markus and Kristian stayed the whole week to support the Swedish team! They did a great job, I honestly think that you could hear them more than the canadian crowd in the end of the final. two vs 6000. Congrats to the Gold medal team Edin!
When we came back to Sweden we had a week before we went to St. Gallen to play the European Masters. The top seven team from Europe, except Niklas Edin and Thomas Ulsrud, were invited and Mark Dacey from Canada. A really tough field which were divided in two groups. We had Sven Michel, Mario Freiberger, borh from Switzerland and Mark Dacey. We managed to win all three games. In the Semi final we played Team De Cruz, also from Switzerland, it was a really close game which came down to the last rock. They had a super thin angle runback to tie but their fourth player just missed it so we stole three points to win 8-4. In the final we were up against Sven Michel again. This game was also close until the seventh end we we picked up a big four ender to end the game, 6-3. VICTORY! With that win we ended up in third place in the Curling Champions Tour 2012/13!
For those who haven’t seen the final you can see it on Laola1.tv in the link below
LAOLA1.tv European Masters Finals: Michel (SUI) – Eriksson (SWE) ::: Free Sport Live Streams / Video
Now we have had a few days off. On monday the preparation and pre-season training begins for the next exciting season!
Have a great summer!
First game playing on the world tour in Canada ended with a win – 5-2 vs Rob Fowler. Both teams struggled a little bit, but we felt we had the upper hand early in the game. A few misses from us early on had them getting away from our grip. There should have been a force of 1 in both first and third end, but both were blanked together. In the fourth we had a chance to lie 2 before their last shot, but our rock hit a straight spot and they got the deuce. We got back quickly and played a solid fifth end to tie the game at 2. In the sixth end we got a stolen point after a really good end from our side. The second to last end we were just putting up guards after having frozen shot stone right on the button. That got us another steal. Our last end wasn’t our best, but Oskar got a quite easy double to bring the game home.
Next game will be up against Mike McEwen – second overall in the order of merit standings – at 4.30pm local time.
See you around!!
/Lit Eriksson
The arena.
We figured it’d be better to write our blog in english. Many of you guys entering our blog seem to be from all over the world and we felt it’d be better this way.
Tja allihopa,
Sitter i skrivande stund hemma hos broder Jens (Christoffers brorsa), taggade inför resan till Kanada. Middagen står snart serverad, samtidigt som min klocka visar 00.38… Inte lätt det här med att ställa om dygnet, något som vi försökt med i 4-5 dagar nu. Tanken från början var att ställa om dygnet för att vara så pigg som möjligt till första matchen mot Rob Fowler, en match som var tänkt att starta onsdag kväll kl 19.30 kanadensisk tid (03.30 svensk tid)… Vi fick dock ett mail från tävlingsledningen lördag kväll… Fowler och hans lag har bokat fel och deras flyg kommer fram till Victoria först väldigt sent på onsdagskvällen. Snälla som vi är gick vi med på ny matchstart… Kl 07.00 på torsdagsmorgonen kanadensisk tid – ett helt nytt matchpass som spelas före resterande matcher för dagen… Alltså har hela proceduren med omställt dygn varit helt i onödan!! Vi gick dock inte helt lottlösa från en såpass kass deal… Gratis frukost på stans bästa frukostställe har utlovats och betalas från tävlingsledarens egna ficka… Snyggt!!
Det är trippelknock (3 förluster och du är utslagen) som gäller. Vi har hamnat på en underhållande stege… Bland andra har vi Edin och Mike Mcewen på vår sida. Vi åker dit med inställningen att vi ska överraska några omedvetna kanadicker… Det ska smälla i planket vid varje närkamp. Nu kör vi!!
Ni kan följa oss här, på vår facebook-sida (Lit CC Team Eriksson) eller på www.victoriacurlingclassic.com
Wish us luck!!
/Crippa
15 raka segrar i elitseriens grundserie följdes upp av 2 förluster mot regerande europamästarna i form av Team Värmland/Edin. Surt förstås efter en vecka med stabilt och bra spel. Isarna och stenarna i Karlstad bäddade för offensiv och underhållande curling, vilket ofta ledde till mycket poäng och få ”nollomgångar”. Här kommer lite statistik från veckan som bevisar det vi menar:
Under de elva matcher vi spelade blev det så kallade ”nollomgångar” vid endast 8 tillfällen.
Vi stal 31 poäng på 11 matcher.
122 poäng fördelade på de 79 omgångar vi spelade… Ett snitt på ungefär 1,54 poäng per spelad omgång.
Finalen mot Edin måste från åskådarplats varit av hög underhållning. Visserligen bjöd båda lagen på mängder av misstag (och nej, det berodde inte på nervositet som vi hört vissa trott, utan på en mycket svårspelad bana), men matchen gick i alla fall till sista sten och hade en del krävande inslag. Tyvärr kunde vi inte uppnå succén från grundserien och förlusten med 6-9 var ett faktum. Lit CC lag Eriksson gratulerar Team Värmland till elitserieguldet!
Media om elitseriefinalen.
Härnäst väntar en resa till Kanada för laget. Vi åker den 18 mars och förväntar oss ett häftigt äventyr. Förhoppningsvis kan vi slå en och annan gammal räv (Kevin Martin, Glenn Howard, Jeff Stoughton) med slutresultat att vi tar revansch på Team Värmland i turneringens final. Man kan ju alltid drömma. ;)
/Lit CC
Då var det dags för andra och sista sammandraget av Elitserien. Som det ser ut nu är vi i delad ledning – 7 raka vinster, 0 förluster – tillsammans med Team Värmland och Niklas Edin som skipper. Tätt bakom oss ligger unga lag Zip/Up med en förlust. Laget är oerhört taggade och ser fram emot att utmana om elitserie-titeln. Under veckan har is och stenar preparerats fint och vi förväntar oss bästa möjliga förutsättningar för bra curling. Det finns mycket curl att hämta och den offensiva curlingen kommer gynnas under helgen.
För er som vill veta, så har Kristian och jag (Christoffer) valt att kolhydratladda med Henke Leeks egen specialité; spaghetti med korv- och bacongryta. Såsen var helt fantastisk! Utöver mitt fantastiska jobb med grytan, gjorde Kristian jobbet som förste diskare.
Recept: Spaghetti, red hot choritzo, finkrossade tomater med basilika, matlagningsgrädde, vitlök, sambal oelek samt salt & peppar förstås. Vanligtvis har vi även gul lök, paprika och champinjoner… Men det verkar inte vara säsong för det nu.
Oskar har förmodligen laddat med 14 timmar FIFA var dag och Markus med evigt serietittande… Duktiga bröder!
Följer oss under helgen gör ni lättast på cuponline.se eller curlingkanalen.se.
/Crippa
Team Eriksson 