In Europe and Africa, Americans provide us incredible sporting accomplishments

When I witnessed the most exciting conclusion to a soccer match in USA soccer history, I thought for sure that it would be the number one story of the week in sports, if not the month in sports, if not the year in sports. After 90 minutes of frustration and agony, finally, in stoppage time, in the 91st minute, Landon Donovan, the greatest US soccer player of all time, was able to score a goal and give the Americans the 1-0 victory they needed to advance out of their group and into the round of 16, in the World Cup.

But as it turns out, the thrilling American soccer game wasn't even the best sports story of the day.

The best sports story of the day, week, month, year, also involved an American and it also took place on the other side of the Atlantic Ocean. It was not in South Africa, but in England, at the Wimbledon tennis tournament.

Concluded today, after 11 hours and five minutes, which spanned over the course of three remarkable days, the American John Isner defeated the Frenchman Nicolas Mahut in the most amazing tennis match ever played. Shattering every record possible in one match, Isner and Mahut played an epic first round match that no words can correctly describe and no superlatives would be fitting.

Here's the final score line: Isner def. Mahut 6-4, 3-6, 7-6, 6-7, 70-68.

The final set was 70-68!

Due to the Wimbledon rules that a fifth set must be won by two games, Isner and Mahut just kept on going, no one breaking serve for 69 games each, and showing fortitude unmatched by anyone in the history of sports. Marathon runners don't have anything on what Isner and Mahut just accomplished. In 100 years people will look back on this match as one of the greatest sporting events of all time.

While Isner finally won out, Mahut, obviously distraught, showed an amazing amount of class in a losing effort. Both players are now immediate household names and will be linked together forever in tennis lure no matter what they both go on to accomplish. Their embrace at the end of the match showed us exactly what sports are all about.

In the past couple of days, we have witnessed American sports victories the likes of which have never been done before, and both of them weren't even in America. The NFL, MLB, NBA, and NHL could never produce the sort of raw emotion and victories of the human spirit that we just saw in Wimbledon and the World Cup.

So what did we learn from the greatest tennis match of all time, and the greatest US soccer victory ever? Sports are the greatest entertainment in the world because they can't be scripted and sports are better on an international stage.

The Lake Show Championship and the World Cup

On the latest edition of the Jared from Jersey Show, Jared and Crush talk about the NBA finals and the World Cup!

And in honor of the opening of Toy Story 3, here are my rankings of Pixar's 11 great films:

1. Toy Story

2. Finding Nemo

3. Toy Story 3

4. Toy Story 2

5. A Bug's Life

6. The Incredibles

7. Monster's Inc

8. Wall-E

9. Ratatouille

10. Cars

11. Up

Chi-town gets the Cup

After 49 years, the best and most coveted trophy in sports, Lord Stanley's Cup, is back in Chicago.

The Chicago Blackhawks win was a result of a game 6, overtime goal that almost no one saw. Patrick Kane went down the left side of the ice, threw it at the goal, and then went crazy. Kane threw off his gloves, sprinted to the other end of the ice and jumped on his goalie as everyone at the Wachovia Center in Philly was stuck in a state of confusion. The announcers didn't even know if it went in.

But after a review, the goal that only Patrick Kane knew was good at first, was confirmed to be the game winning goal of the 2010 Stanley Cup Finals.

It's always a good feeling to know that the best team has won, and in this case the Chicago Blackhawks were the best team. From Kane to Byfuglien to Toews, the Chicago stars outperformed the Philly stars and in the end the Flyer's goaltending proved to be a fatal weakness.

You gotta feel good for Marian Hossa. After losing in the finals two years in a row with two different teams, he finally found redemption with the Blackhawks. Hossa nearly cost the Hawks game 6 with a huge turnover in the neutral zone that gave the Flyers a breakaway early in the game, but thanks to a huge Antti Niemi save, Hossa's mistake was eradicated. After Captain Jonathan Toews took his skate with the Cup, the first person he handed it to was Hossa. Hossa was finally able to touch the hardest trophy in the world to win.

And the Chicago goalie Antti Niemi. He was wildly impressive. I'd be lying if I said I knew who he was before this year, but in the playoffs he performed like exactly what he is now, a champion.

So, the Blackhawks become the first Chi-town team to win a championship under the presidency of Chicago native, Barack Obama. while I doubt though, that Obama knows too much about hockey, maybe the joy felt in his city will help ease the struggles that he's going through now. Probably not, but maybe. By the way, Chicago pizza is only second to New York pizza.

Now every player on the Blackhawks gets to spend a day with the Cup which is one of the coolest things about winning it. I'm looking forward to hearing some funny stories about what the players do with it.

Congratulations Chicago. Well deserved.

No one's perfect, except cameras

Armando Galaragga pitched a perfect game. period.

I have never been this angry about something to do with sports in my life. Every North American pro sports league uses replay, except for MLB. Baseball is the sport that needs it the most!

MLB has to get out of the dark ages and move into 2010 where we have the technology to get the calls right. SCREW THE HUMAN ELEMENT. HUMANS ARE WRONG.

Why are important calls in important situations in important games being left to a guess? A simple replay showed that Galaragga has indeed pitched a perfect game, but since MLB is so intent on pleasing baseball purists and is basically just stupid they won't use replay to make calls.

Look, Bud Selig is the worst commissioner in sports. He screwed up steroids, he doesn't market the game well at all, and lacrosse is going to be more popular than baseball in 10 years, but he could do one positive thing now...

Implement instant replay to get close calls right and give Galaragga the perfect game. Knowing Selig, he's not gonna do either of those things. Selig Sucks. Galaragga's perfect.

But, this whole ordeal has provided a world class example of sportsmanship from both the Tigers and the umpire Jim Joyce. No one feels worse than Joyce who apologized and has been brought to tears, while the Tigers have handled the situation to well, perfection.

As for Galaragga, he has been incredible, offering support for Joyce and staying all smiles. This "perfect game" will go down as the most infamous of all time, so Galaragga doesn't belong to the club of 20 pitchers to pitch official perfect games, but a club of one.

Galaragga knows he was perfect, so do the fans and so does everyone else. So in the end, what does the record book actually mean. Hell, half the records in the official record book are false anyway (steroids) so it only makes sense for baseball to leave out a record that is real.