Tuesday, July 19, 2011

First is the worst, second is the best.

On Sunday the USA had three representatives with a chance at making me eat my own words. I wrote a few weeks back that the US as a country was losing its grip on sports dominance across the board. Granted some sports are still doing okay, for the most part the country is losing it.

The first opportunity was at The Open Championship, where Darren Clarke was the leader playing with Dustin Johnson in the final group (Johnson is slowly becoming the lovable loser of golf majors).

The other American in the mix was Phil Mickelson, who thrust himself into the tournament with an astounding 10 hole stretch where he only took 33 swings with his golf clubs.

Take a second and think about that.

Okay, we're back.

Mickelson eagled the 7th hole to get into a tie with Clarke, who was plugging away, backed by the fans and the unreal streak his tiny country is on right now (if you include Padraig Harrington's run of 3 majors from 2007-2008 then the entire island of Ireland has won 6 of the last 18 majors...not bad...). Mickelson's charge was very similar to Tiger's at The Masters this April. Unfortunately,  Phil turned into his old self on the last eight holes and disappeared, finishing second but really having no say in the outcome after the 13th hole.

(Note: I sent my buddy Burke a very prophetic text that I am quite proud. It said "Phil?? Can he do this? He will hit one rough patch. He has to. How he deals with it is huge." Well he didn't deal with it at all. He struggled).

Dustin Johnson was the other US hopeful as the cream rose to the top on Sunday. Dustin, for his lanky, hippy walk seems to melt under major pressure. The scary part is that he has proven to make both mental and physical mistakes. He shot 82 at Pebble Beach in the last group of the US Open last summer, and then made a HUGE mistake (go to the 2:55 mark to remind yourself...) on the 18th at Whistling Straits at the PGA Championship.



The "Everyman" ready to fill his cup with Guinness.

This time Johnson found a new way to make a mistake. He hit the ball out of bounds on the par 5 14th hole. It was a shot that was unforgivable, it was a shot that a lot of 15 handicappers would not hit. The out of bounds runs down the entire right side of the hole. Rory McIlroy also hit it out of bounds on that hole on Saturday, pretty much ending any chance he had at making a run on Sunday.

Both Americans found themselves second place to the wide smiling, heavy drinking Northern Irishman. Once again, the US came up shy of where they needed to be.

30 minutes later the world was introduced to a pluky set of American girls, the type who like to make you sit on the edge of your seat. The cardiac girls we might have called them. Some called them a "team of destiny" (which is a bullshit theory, but that's just may opinion.), ready to reignite the flame that the 1999 World Cup winning team had passed to them (did you know the 1999 team beat China on penalty kicks in the Rose Bowl that year? And Brandi Chastain took off her jersey after the winning goal. It was crazy!).

You could nearly compare how Phil Mickelson started his round to how the US Women started their game. The team came out guns blazing, creating numerous scoring chances, chances that might have left the result completely unquestioned after a half hour. However, the cardiac girls decided that it would be too easy to grab a 3-0 lead at halftime. They instead left it at 0-0. Tied, just like Mickelson.

The US Women got a great goal from a great gal, a great gal. Alex Morgan proved her validity as the next great soccer player. The heir-apparent to Abby Wombach. The team's defense, which had been in question all tournament, went sour at a bad time: when they had the lead in the World Cup Final.


Second place hardware...ugh...


In the end, the US blew their chance. The women's history against the Japanese team was an astounding 22 wins and 3 ties without a single loss. This team, like every US team in the World Cup was under the microscope. They barely qualified for the World Cup, needing to beat Italy in a play-in game. In the end, they were second fiddle, just like Mickelson and Johnson in Sandwich, England.

Sunday was just another day for the US. A day of disappointment, a day of lost opportunities, a day where we were only second best. We look at the winners and make ourselves feel better by saying Clarke is the "everyman" and Japan needed this win more. At least these days our country is used to getting trophies and credit for finishing in second place. I hope we do not get too used to it.

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