"Choking Freakin´ Dogs" Rally in the Rain

(c) AP Photo/Alastair Grant

Yes, the American ladies beat both Sweden in ladies´ World Cup and then Europe in the Solheim Cup. This weekend saw plenty of the good, the bad and the real ugly. Speaking of which, former Solheim Cup player Dottie Pepper managed to get things going for her compatriots when she called them "choking freakin´dogs" while commenting for the Golf Channel. Her excuse? She thought they had just cut to commercial...

Pepper has a history to go with this comment: her behavior in former Solheim Cups drove the likes of Annika and Laura Davies to draw her face on a punching bag....now that ain´t nice.

More ugly: the weather. For years, decades, a lifetime, I have been trying to convince folks that the myth of bad Swedish weather is just that, a darn freakin´ myth. These are some of the adjectives used to describe the conditions in Halmstad "gloomy", "wet", "stormy", "cold" etc. etc. And I can´t say that it wasn´t all that and more. Besides, up here near the Arctic Circle, I woke up to snow yesterday.

But what I like is that the weather wasn´t dwelt upon by the players and for once the Europeans didn´t resort to excuses. Guess that would have been embarrassing due to the home course advantage. Trust me, over the years I have read countless interviews with athletes who have moaned about the weather or whatever, just in case they wind up performing poorly... lame.

OK, so it came down to the singles and the U.S. took 8 of the 12 matches, Europe 3 with one halved. Two U.S. rookies, Stacy Prammanasudh and Morgan Pressel won their matches. And how! As the Guardian reported:

The most significant point of the day was earned by Stacy Prammanasudh, who was matched with Suzann Pettersen. With Annika Sorenstam spending most of the year battling against injury, the Norwegian has emerged as Europe's best player, winning one major, the LPGA championship...

Meanwhile, Pressel, a mere 19, beat Annika - the best player in history and still number 3 in the world. Kudos (the photo is of red-clad Pressel´s dishing out a consolation hug to Annika; REUTERS/Bob Strong.) So much for choking...

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PIC of Schelin...

Returning to the world of football, I regret to report that Sweden was knocked out today. They managed to do what the U.S. couldn´t, beat North Korea, but it was not enough. They had to win by at least three goals to leap frog the North Koreans in the standings.

Oh well, they played well in this match and Lotta Schelin, the next big thing in women´s soccer, was awesome today, scoring both goals.
And you can argue that the rules should be changed since goal difference is less telling than the head to head encounter. My guess is that FIFA just wants to encourage more goals, but then you wind up with an increased likelihood of a losing team going through. But them´s the rules, so no whining...

To close, check out this clip from Friday´s U.S. - Sweden game. What a goal by Wambach, pure poetry...