Performance of the Week

Before I go into this weeks performance of the week I want to give some honorable mentions to those few who missed out on such a coveted award. I'll start with Stoke City who went to Anfield to nick a point where no-one gave them a chance, however Stoke's draw may well have come from Liverpool's neglegence and not there outstanding play. Walsall are the other football team to deserve a mention, after going down to nine men midway through the match at Brighton they were able to come away with a 1-0 win against all the odds.

But probably predicatbly this weeks performance of the week comes from Valhalla and goes to the American team after their thumping 16 1/2 11 1/2 victory over the European team. After going nine years without the trophy they were certainly due a win and with a passionate Kentucky crowd behind them they overcame what looked on paper to be a strong European team. How often have we said the same about the Americans.

A lot of people are saying this morning that Nick Faldo's captaincy and the performances of the some of our key player was the reason USA won. I would agree with the latter statement, but behind every god performance there is a good one and I would go as far to say that the American performance was good enough to hold off the Europeans even at there best.

Performances from the likes of Hunter Mahan and JB Holmes for me set the standard for the Americans and if two rookies are going to do that think how good the established players were. In fact it was the rookies who played the best, both Phil Mickelson and Jim Furyk showed they haven't quiet got it right at Ryder Cup level, although Mickelson played brilliantly on the first day.

A mention should go to Paul Azinger as well. It's plain to see he shot enthusiasm and belief into this USA team that they could win this match. Many members of the team would have been apprehensive they could regain the cup, Azinger wasn't going to let them give up.

The state that let you know that this was a real team performance is this one. Europes highest scorer on there team was Ian Poulter who scored four out of eleven and half points, leaving just seven and a half for the remaining 11 players.

He was the highest scorer of the match in fact, more than any American player, and the fact that no player scored four points on there own and they still amassed sixteen and a half shows there was an unbreakable team spirit. There was a bind that they were all in it together and they could all play there part, and they did.