6/23/2010
Wednesday will go down as one of the biggest sports days we have seen in quite some time.
In what some people are calling a defining day in US Soccer history, the United States defeated Algeria 1-0 to move onto the Round of 16 in the World Cup. The US, before the game, knew that a win and they were in. A tie and they needed some help in the England/Slovakia match. When England went up 1-0 in their match, and the US still tied at 0-0 with Algeria it looked as if the United States would be sent home neither winning or losing. Time and time again the US attacked and were turned away by either the woodwork, the goalkeeper or just plain missing the net. With only minutes to spare in the match, Landon Donovan, the anointed poster boy of US soccer, cemented his legacy as one of the greatest US players ever as he kicked in a rebound to put the US ahead 1-0 to win the match.
It will be rare to see a tennis write up in this blog (dare I say the last) but 6/23/2010 did not see an ordinary tennis match. In fact, this tennis match was so great it is going to take at least 3 days from beginning to end. John Isner and Nicolas Mahut are playing in the longest tennis match in recorded history. No, its not for charity, no they’re not trying to break a world record...they just can’t finish the damn thing. On Tuesday Isner and Mahut played, what can only be described as, a good 4 sets of tennis that nobody cared about and was postponed until Wednesday because of rain. It was their 5th set, on Wednesday which made headlines around the world. Currently the score sits at 59-59. That’s right. 59 games to 59 games. The two men played 118 games in one day. The 5th set has spanned over 7 hours, which by itself breaks the longest tennis match ever played by 3 1/2 hours. Add on the 3 hours of Tuesday night play and the two have played 10 hours of tennis and have yet to decide on a winner.
The fun may have stopped for the rest of the country but the College World Series provided a night cap for Nebraskans in this amazing sports day. Adopted fan favorite TCU was down 7-3 going into the top of the 8th inning against Florida State, both fighting to stay in the College World Series. Two runs started the rally for the Horned Frogs but a mammoth grand slam that had to have traveled 450 feet over the center field fence, put TCU ahead 9-7. Another 2 run home run in the inning gave the Horned Frogs 8 runs in the 8th inning that gave them the 11-7 winning score. TCU moves on to face UCLA in the bracket championship. TCU must win twice to go to the national championship series, while UCLA needs only one win. In the other bracket, Oklahoma and South Carolina will play Thursday for the right to play Clemson in the other bracket championship.
As a new day dawns, its good to look back at one heck of a sporting day.
The Comments
Mr. T says After playing tennis for just June 24, 2010 at 8:20pm
After playing tennis for just 90 minutes this evening, I am already exhausted (and a lot of that was just fooling around). The Isner/Mahut match will go down in history. Its unlikely something like that will happen again in our lifetimes.
I’m pulling for the USA, Germany, Korea, and Mexico to win this weekend. But who knows what could happen. In this tournament France and Italy have been demolished, Spain has lost, the English have fared poorly, and Germany has been beaten. Every goal counts. Its going to be great!
D.M.B. says From everything I've read, the June 24, 2010 at 10:45pm
From everything I’ve read, the US has a favorable draw in the Round of 16. Gahna is a winnable match (a lot of the focus before the WC in Group C was to stay out of the 2nd spot to avoid Germany in the opening round of 16) and then the winner of Uruguay/South Korea is equally as winnable.
Who knows where this countries soccer fever would get to if they made it to the semifinals?