Twistity Sports Exclusive: WEEKEND IN REVIEW

 
The past few days in sports churned the heart, the mind and the gut. So much happening, and with such high stakes. Can’t get to everything but why not look at World Cup thrills, a long-awaited victory on the LPGA Tour and the College World in Weekend In Review:

Can’t win, can’t lose: The USA’s World Cup hopes rose and then crashed. A sure victory slipped cruelly into a 2-2 tie with Portugal. Portugal’s tying goal came in stoppage time, a concept as mysterious as the universe itself.

The clock never stops running in soccer but time consumed by injuries or celebrations gets tallied up and tacked onto the theoretical end of regulation time. Locks for the round of 16 with a win on Sunday night, the USA now cannot afford a loss to Germany on Thursday. A win or tie advances the USA but the Ghana–Portugal game’s outcome could play into whether the USA qualifies for the knockout round.

Wie waited a long time for this (and so did we): Michelle Wie, 24, has been with us since her early teen years. It’s always been about promise, not production. But Wie put together two strong rounds to start the U.S. Women’s Open and made a key birdie late to finish two strokes ahead of Stacy Lewis, the world’s No. 1 ranked player, at Pinehurst No. 2. Wie staved off pressures down the stretch to win her first major.

Home-field advantage: The College World Series in Omaha matches Virginia and Vanderbilt in a best-of-three that starts today. But don’t think of Omaha as a neutral site. Virginia baseball coach Brian O’Connor was born in Omaha, attended and worked at many a College World Series and also played in it in 1991 when he pitched for Creighton.

Honorable mention: Carmelo Anthony opted out of the final year of his contract with the New York Knicks. Likely destination: Chicago. Not-so-likely destination. Miami. … Yankees pitcher Masahiro Tanaka absorbed just his second loss this season in an 8-0 beating by the Orioles at Yankee Stadium … on Old Timer’s Day. Tanaka is 11-2. After his only other loss, which was on May, Tanaka then went 5-0 with a 1.26 ERA in his next five starts.
 
 
Post By: Larry Weisman, a longtime sportswriter for USA TODAY, blogs for Twistity.com. Follow him on Twitter @MrLarryWeisman .