Sometimes summertime is a snooze-- but not this past week. Too much to get into and recover from...
World Cup thrills, chills and spills... From goals that should have counted to thrilling comebacks, Team USA went unbeaten in Group play only to fall in extra time to Ghana in the Round of Sixteen. It's a shame because the traditional heavyweights (Germany, Argentina, Brazil) were in the other half of the bracket; sometimes a nation needs a few breaks in its draw to make noise and it appeared as though the US had that break... instead they leave South Africa broken hearted.
It's a credit that they got so far with as little firepower (no goals from the forwards) and slow starts (allowing goals often early-- even Algeria had a great early chance in the first half of their match). These were sore points that would have eliminated a weaker team; and if nothing else Team USA will look at 2010 as the year of the comebacks.
Wacky Wimbledon-- one incredible turn after another this fortnight: from John Isner's Inna-Gadda-da-Vidda of matches against Nicolas Mahut (eleven hours and three days) to quality battles littered throughout the first few rounds-- Roger Federer's comeback from 2 sets back on opening day... Rafael Nadal's escape of upset over the weekend and the rash of womens upsets (with the consonants market cornered in the semifinals)... setting up two fantastic round of sixteen matches Monday-- Yen-Hsun Lu shocking Andy Roddick (4 of 5 sets went to tiebreaker) and Serena Williams outlasting Maria Sharapova (11-9 the first set finish). Of course with Venus Williams out and Andy Roddick headed home two of the four annual questions have been answered no: the "Will we see the Williams Sisters in the Finals?" and "Is this the year for Roddick?". It remains to be seen about the other two: "Another Federer-Nadal Clash for the Title?" and "Is this the year for a Brit (aka Andy Murray)?".
Murray aside-- it's interesting how Britain recycles best hopes like Bond actors... as Tim Henman's the original--I've yet to determine if Murray is Lazenby, Moore, Dalton, Brosnan or Craig (although Andy Murray is Scottish like Sir Sean).
Strasburg support-- after taking winning his first two major league starts, Stephen Strasburg has pitched well but shows he can't field 8 positions or hit the other 8 spots in the batting order. Although the strikeouts have dropped off (from 11 per start to just under 9) so has his run support (one run in three games). Unfortunately, the rest of the rotation is starting to stagger-- and we aren't even at the all-star break yet.
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