On the Fringe

It's not too often you hear Americans talking about soccer and tennis...let alone both on the same day.


Today, they provided Americans with captivating sagas, with two of their own involved.


It took 91 minutes for Landon Donovan to net a dramatic goal and finally break through for the U.S. soccer team in dire straits.


It took 10 hours for American John Isner and Frenchman Nicolas Mahut to reach 59 all in the fifth set at Wimbledon. Yes, that's right, 59-59. It looks more like the end of third quarter score of a 2005 Spurs/Pistons game than of a set in tennis. The previous record for most games in a match: 112. These two have played more games, 118, in just this fifth set. They've eclipsed the previous record for longest match by more than three hours. And they haven't even decided a winner yet.




They'll continue on tomorrow. The U.S. soccer team will continue on to the round of 16 to face Ghana.

And today both sports moved from the fringe of America's cultural gravitas to the fore front. Contrary to popular belief, Americans don't hate soccer. They don't hate tennis. There just needs to be that compelling pull to draw widespread interest.

It's June 23rd and we're not talking about one of the big four. We're talking about a couple of the ugly stepsisters. But beware soccer and tennis...the clock could strike twelve at any minute. Brett Favre is due to throw a football around at a high school, a perfect game could spring to fruition at any time, July 1st is looming and goodness knows LeBron James is going to get more invites to citywide parties than my sister to graduation parties.