I did not get a chance to see a lot of the matches and just got a chance to see 1/2 a match here and 1/2 a match there, but my take on the matches were that Europe jumped all over the Americans early. That this gave them a lot of momentum and emotion, as well as took a lot of the pressure off. By contrast I thought that the Americans played a little tight and were getting a head of themselves at times, when Europe would make a mistake the Americans more often then not would follow up with a bad shot. The Americans also I think were looking for anything at all to get some momentum to feed off of but really never had a lot of matches shots holes in a row go right.

As for the team thing, I think that over the years Europe has an easier time finding pairings that work, a lot of it is the attitude of their players. I really not sure if any of their players care who their matched with they seem to be happy who they have a chance to perform. The Americans to me are more concerned with who they are matched with, as well as "finding the right partner". Take this weekend where one golfer in the alternate shot is going to have 12 of the 18 approach shots (I believe that is the stat they gave for the K club) why would you not split up the 2 top golfers in the world Furyk and Woods (both great iron players) put them with a great putter and let each of them anchor a team. I know they expressed an interest in playing together and how their games are similar but to me where you lack Europe's depth and are down they should have been split up on alternate shot.

Also, I think that the Americans stick with their "stars" way too much. Given Phil's past ryder cup record, I am not sure why you run him out all 5 matches (same for Tiger and Furyk but at least they showed they came to play on day 1). I can see giving him the first day, but where he fails to get a point you need to give the other guys a chance besides giving him a wake up call and sitting him might just fire him up.