There’s a significant changing of the guard unfolding before the eyes of the English soccer world.
Nineteen-year-old Arsenal winger Theo Walcott has not so quietly asserted himself as the new David Beckham for the English side, and, though Beckham isn’t exactly ready to relinquish his star status, he has found himself marveling at Walcott’s talents while playing mere cameo roles.
In a couple of England’s World Cup qualifying matches in September, Walcott dominated not only in playing time compared with Beckham but more importantly in production.
In a 2-0 England win over Andorra in Barcelona, the 33-year-old Beckham didn’t get into the match until the 84th minute, when he replaced Walcott.
In England’s next match, Walcott again started ahead of Beckham and delivered a hat trick in England’s 4-1 rout of Croatia in Zagreb, the first time Croatia had ever lost at home in a competitive international match.
Along the way, Walcott has drawn raves from Beckham and other important English players. Wayne Rooney, who scored England’s other goal in its 2-0 win over Andorra, called Walcott “the quickest player I’ve seen. He was brilliant.”
“Theo has been great,” Beckham says. “You can see what a threat he is every time he gets the ball and runs at players. There is no one that can get near him. He deserves to be where he is, and I hope he carries on, because he is an exceptional talent.”’ Beckham’s praise, in particular, moved Walcott.
“He has been absolutely brilliant to me and he just gave me so much confidence,” Walcott says. “He’s given me praise and it’s unbelievable coming from David.”
Walcott, at age 17, was a member of England’s 2006 World Cup team in Germany, and his star has risen since, not only for his national team but also for Arsenal, one of the league powers in England’s Premiership.
“I give the England team a different aspect by getting behind defenders,” Walcott said in an interview with Agence France-Presse. “There are some world-class players who can also play on the right wing, but I give them a different option, because the pace is there.”
Former Arsenal midfielder Alexander Hleb, who now plays for Barcelona, offered this praise for the young English star: “Theo’s success with the England side has come as no surprise. He is a player who needed some continuity.
“In my time at Arsenal you could see from an early stage he was a player with serious potential. But his development was complicated and his chances of getting in the team were not helped by the number of quality players we had in the squad.
“But now he’s getting more minutes on the pitch and his football is progressing as a result.”
Walcott is aware that, as his success mounts, so do expectations. And he’s doing his best to be patient and temper any impatience the fans might have.
For example, he says he knew the English fans would be salivating for more goals after his three-goal outburst against Croatia. And, when a similar performance didn’t follow in England’s 5-1 Cup qualifier win over Kazakhstan, he says, “I knew the fans would probably expect me to get another hat trick, but it’s not going to happen every game. Some fans know that. Some fans want you to push on, but I’ve got plenty of time.’’
Indeed, at 19, Walcott has plenty of time to cultivate his stardom and follow the path of Beckham.
Kazakhstan’s coach Bernd Storck says of Walcott, “I’ve seen a lot of games in my career and I was at the Croatia game. What I saw of Walcott there was unbelievable. Walcott was the youngest player to play in England’s national team and is still a player for the future.
“He’s very fast, with good technique and he scores goals. For England, the future is very good with him.’’ — Mark Cannizzaro
Conservative is definitely not in Suzann Pettersen’s dictionary.
Cool as her native Norwegian fjords, she takes chances. You won’t see Suzann Pettersen, 27, nurse a lead or coast home to protect a paycheck. She plays golf like she skis — hard and gutsy. How is that approach working out? Pettersen is ranked fourth in the current Rolex Women’s World Rankings and has sponsors lined up at her door.
Last year was Pettersen’s bust-out season, with five Tour wins, including the major LPGA Championship, where she beat Karrie Webb by one stroke. The week before that victory, Pettersen finished with a T-45, putting with the touch of a blacksmith. But in the LPGA Championship pro-am, she borrowed a strange-looking putter from her amateur partner, liked it, and used it as a magic wand to win her first major.
Change is not something Pettersen fears. After finishing second to Lorena Ochoa on the ’07 LPGA money list with $1.8 million, Pettersen changed her clubs and coach, switching to Nike and David Leadbetter. She embraced a new-age concept of mind-body golf training, “Vision 54.” This is a woman willing to do whatever it takes.
“Some people dream of success,” Pettersen says, “while others wake up and dig hard for it.”
Suzann — her friends call her Tutta (short “u”) — started digging for success at age 6, when she fell in love with golf, pushing skiing to the back burner. During long winters in Oslo she practiced indoors, and when she was older, she fled to Spain and France for her winter golf work before moving to Orlando six years ago.
Pettersen turned pro in ’03, lost most of ’04 to elbow surgery and most of ’05 to a ruptured disc, and then began her fast rise to the top. Rather than dial back her swing to avoid injuries, the 5-foot-7 Pettersen continues to grip it and rip it as one of the Tour’s longest drivers.
That aggression paid off last season, and Pettersen’s new challenge is to prove she can handle the spotlight and the high expectations. She has yet to win this year, but does have nine top-10 finishes in 21 starts, and $1.1 million in winnings.
Pettersen has immersed herself in the culture of golf. Caddyshack is her favorite movie and she knows her golf history, from Snead to Tiger. Now she’s trying to make a little golf history of her own. —Scott Ostle
Just the second European player ever to win the PGA Player of the Year award.
The strapping Irishman crammed a golfing career into four star-spangled weeks. From mid-July to mid-August, Padraig Harrington did a remarkable impersonation of Tiger Woods, helping him to capture the 2008 PGA Player of the Year award. He won the British Open, and three weeks later the PGA.
That’s two majors, back-to-back. Throw in the 2007 British Open, which he also won, and that’s three majors out of the past six. The Dubliner is rolling along like a 70-foot putt for eagle.
He is something of a late arrival to this party, having acquired an accounting degree and working in the business world for a time, not entirely sure whether the golfer’s nomadic life was for him. He finally turned pro in 1995 at the age of 24. His presence was more ripple than splash.
Harrington honed his game and refined his swing. But that was the physical part, and in golf it is the mental part that is the most elusive. In the process, Harrington became a master of the almost-not-quite finish. He had second-itis, finishing a frustrating runner-up again and again, four times in five tries in 1999 alone.
“Couldn’t seem to get out of my own way,” he said at the time.
But his talent was undeniable, and it was only a matter of time. And once he broke through, he quickly became one of Europe’s elite players, a globe-trotter who has won all over the world.
He has five PGA Tour wins and 16 international victories, including such diverse geographical wins as the Spanish Open, the Irish Open and PGA, the Brazil Open, the Asian Open, the Hong Kong Open, and the German Masters.
All that was missing from that resume was a major. And that was remedied in 2007 at the British Open at Carnoustie, though it was not without high drama. He took a runaway lead into the last hole, but put two shots in the water and was fortunate to get into a four-hole playoff with Sergio Garcia. Harrington’s victory there was the first by an Irish golfer in 60 years.
In the days leading to the 2008 British Open, there was considerable doubt whether a sore wrist would allow him to defend his title. But he gritted it out, won, and then at the PGA, he fired a pair of blazing 66’s on Saturday and Sunday, and became the first European player to win the PGA in 78 years.
His bank account for this year to remember has swelled to $4.5 million, his career earnings are past $15 million, and he is halfway to a career Grand Slam, a distinction achieved by only five players, the most recent one being Tiger Woods.
Which brings us, conveniently, to this face-to-face fact: Those who are paired with Woods tend to unravel quickly, awed and cowed. But Padraig Harrington, in the six rounds they have played together, has never lost to Woods and has a scoring average of 68.63 to Woods’ 69.50. — Bill Lyon
Juan Martin Del Potro In the company of tennis royalty.
He twirls his racquet and walks around the baseline with a cool confidence, reminding some of the tennis greats of years past. At 20 years old, Argentine Juan Martin Del Potro is quickly ascending the ATP ranks toward his dream of becoming the top ranked player in the world. For him it’s not a question of if, but a matter of when.
People never doubted his ability; he was known to have great potential before this season even began. However, injuries slowed his progress and limited his opportunities to play. Knowing he was better than his No. 81 rank, he decided to make a change. He hired a new trainer who has helped him stay healthy, and now everyone can see that the hype was well-deserved.
In his first four ATP events, Del Potro showed the world how good he can be by winning each one. The type of surface didn’t matter. He won on both hard stuff and clay. From mid-July to late August, Del Potro won 19 straight matches, the second-longest streak of the year. He also holds the second-longest streak by a teenager.
With his strong play, he rose all the way up the rankings to No. 9 in the world. He won in Germany, Austria, Los Angeles, and Washington, D.C. “I don’t really understand what I did. I have no words to describe the feeling I have in this moment. It is difficult to believe that I have won four consecutive titles,” he said at the time. His eyes were locked on the U.S. Open as he made it all the way to the quarterfinals before losing to Andy Murray, the eventual runner-up. All his success has helped him earn more than $1 million this year on tour.
While some may have problems staying focused in the game, Del Potro attributes his mental toughness and success to his coach, Franco Davin. It was Davin who suggested that he play on clay courts after hurting his back while playing on hard surfaces.
Del Potro’s style is well-balanced as he uses his size to his advantage. At 6-foot-6, he towers over most of his opponents, but for a big man, he has great agility to quickly get to the balls in the corners. And when he charges the net, his humongous wingspan can strike fear into opponents’ minds as he can effortlessly reach almost every ball.
It seems the sky is the limit with Juan Martin Del Potro. He could very well be destined for greatness like the others who have won four ATP titles in a single season during their teen years. Of the 11 who have done so, 10 of them have gone on to become ranked No. 1 in the world, including greats like Andre Agassi, Rafael Nadal, and Pete Sampras.
Del Potro is big, plays big, and dreams big as well. “I hope to win some Grand Slams, not just one,” he says. “One of my dreams is to be number one.” It certainly seems he is well on his way. — Kevin McCarthy
You, however, would hardly know it by watching him conduct himself or listening to him speak. Johnson, a megastar in his sport, is as nondescript and low key as Pete Sampras was when he was dominating the tennis world several years ago, before retiring on top. Another driver would be talking up the fact that he was about to tie the great Cale Yarborough’s record for winning three consecutive NASCAR titles, a record that has stood for 30 years. But with Johnson, you’d think he was merely headed to another day at the office.
“I do appreciate and respect history and what’s been done in the sport, and know that I have a chance to do something very, very special,” Johnson said last month. “It’s back in my mind, deep somewhere, but I haven’t let it out yet.”
Yarborough won the NASCAR title in 1976, ’77, and ’78, and he knows that record is set to be tied, saying on a recent conference call with reporters, “The handwriting’s on the wall. It’s going to happen. I understand that I was Jimmie’s hero when he was growing up, so if he does it, more power to him. If he does it, I’ll be in good company.”
The 33-year-old Johnson has not finished worse than fifth in points since he became a full-time Cup driver in 2002. As he chased the title, he was asked about the pressure of tying the record with several drivers, such as Greg Biffle and Jeff Burton, his closest competitors, trying to hunt him down.
“I’ve just done well in pressure situations through my career,” Johnson says.
One of the fascinating traits in Johnson is how he stays away from the fray of negativity in his sport when it comes to controversy and conflict, two things that permeate auto racing. While many of his fellow drivers bicker with each other after competitive races or accidents, Johnson deftly skates by without incident.
While many other drivers are grudging in their praise of each other for races won, it’s difficult for even his rivals to find flaw in Johnson, though some jealousy surely exists. Take for example the race at Talladega when rival Carl Edwards was involved in a 12-car crash with 16 laps to go while Johnson avoided all contact and cruised to victory. “I don’t know where Jimmie gets his horseshoes, but he’s got amazing luck,” Edwards said afterward.
“Jimmie didn’t make it through that wreck because of his skill,” Biffle says. “He made it through that wreck because he was at the right place at the right time and made the right decisions, turned the right way. I’m not saying he just went through there blindfolded, but it would have been easy for someone to come off the wall and clip him, but he made it through, and that’s just the luck of the draw.”
When Johnson completes his inevitable chase down of Yarborough and history, though, it’ll be difficult to count that as luck. Yarborough, despite deep down inside not wanting to see his long-standing record tied, has an appreciation for Johnson.
“I’ve watched Jimmie, and he’s the kind of driver that likes to run up front,” Yarborough said. “That’s the way I drove. I can appreciate what he’s doing. He’s got his head on straight and he’s doing everything right, and I can appreciate that.” — Mark Cannizzaro
