During these London Olympics, the United States field hockey team beat one of the top teams in the world in Argentina but today embarrassingly loss to one of the worst in South Africa 7-0.

Two of South Africa’s goals involved Illse Davids, who played with U.S. players Amy Falgowski and Rachel Dawson at UNC. In fact, the three were part of a national championship in 2007. In the first half, Davids got the ball deep in U.S. territory on a turnover. After her shot was blocked by Swensen, she passed to teammate Jen Wilson on the other side of the goal for the score, making it 3-0.

In the second half, on a penalty corner play, South African Dirkie Chamberlain scored on a rebound assist off the stick of Davids to make it 6-0.

The South Africans were winless before today’s match and had only scored two goals. The U.S., which had hopes of medaling this time around, finished eighth in the 2008 Olympics. Even with seven returning veterans, including three Tar Heels, the best the Americans can finish is 11th following Wednesday’s final match of the Olympic Games.

U.S. goalkeeper Amy Tran Swensen, from UNC, had been a star for the Americans as she kept her team in every game. The three losses suffered by the U.S. before this game had all been by just one goal.

But the South Africans scored four goals in the first half – twice as many goals as they had in their first four games. Swensen faced pressure the entire game as the pressuring South Africa team received 10 penalty corner shots.

Well, the second guessing can officially begin as UNC’s Shalane Flanagan qualified to run in the 10,000 meters in the Olympics (she won the bronze in that event four years ago) but gave up that spot to focus on winning the marathon. She didn’t.

Flanagan stayed at the top of the pack of the Olympic marathon for more than an hour and a half today. But, despite her finishing time being only 13 seconds off her personal best on a slow and rainy course, Flanagan dropped back over the last third of the race and finished 10th, two minutes and 44 seconds behind the winner, Tiki Gelana of Ethiopia.

Gelana, while well off the world record, set an Olympic record at two hours, twenty-three minutes and 31 seconds.

Flanagan’s US teammate and training partner Kara Goucher finished 11th a half a minute behind her.

Two Ethiopians and three Kenyans, the usual suspects, broke out front for the last 50 minutes. Russian Petrova Arkhipova passed Flanagan and joined the lead back an hour and 50 minutes in and finished in third place behind Kenyan Priscah Jeptoo.

With her blonde hair, bright red two piece racing suit, neon green shoes and dark blue hat with the American flag on it, Flanagan stood out in front at the beginning and through most of the first 90 minutes as the runners started at Buckingham Palace, raced around Trafalgar Square and past Big Ben, Westminster Abby and the Tower of London.

It was an unusually complicated course with few hills but lots of twists and turns where trailing runners were blinded from the lead runners. The race had more than 90 turns, including four U-turns.

About 17 minutes in, a large group, led by Flanagan and others broke away. With the Africans laying back, Flanagan led after 25 minutes. The lead pack was down to 40-50 women after a half hour. When retrieving water, many of the women took a few swigs and tossed the bottle away but Flanagan tended to take smaller sips and run with the bottle longer.

Flanagan stayed in the top five as the lead pack dwindled to 30 runners 40 minutes into the race. After first 55 minutes, while the lead pack had gotten even smaller, Flanagan dropped back a tad to ninth.

But Flanagan and the rest of the field got a boost when a favored Russian, Liliya Shobukhova, dropped back after about an hour and 10 minutes and then dropped out with a hamstring injury.

There were 20 in the lead pack after an hour and 20 minutes with three Kenyans, two Ethiopians and two Americans among them.

Shortly thereafter the Kenyans and Ethiopians separated themselves from the pack and Flanagan struggled to stay within striking distance. With eight miles left, Flanagan’s hat was off and she was 10-12 seconds behind the lead pack.

Running on her own, her rhythm changed slightly and she had a harder time maintaining a good tempo. Running seventh at the two-hour mark, Flanagan was effectively out of the medal race.

However, known for her speed, Flanagan wasn’t through yet. Amazingly, she passed one of the Ethiopians for sixth place and then one of the Kenyans for fifth.

But then she faded and was totally spent by the time she crossed the finish line, falling down on her hands and knees. Despite finishing ahead of her teammate, Flanagan needed help from Goucher to get up off the street. “That’s giving 101 percent, unable to stand,” said NBC analyst Tim Hutchings.

NBC analyst and former runner Craig Masback added, “Flanagan’s time is only a little bit off her personal best, so considering that this course was not fast, that is an achievement in itself.”

Flanagan achieved her personal best of 2:25:38 at the Olympic trials in better conditions and on a faster course. She finished the Olympics at 2:25:51.

The next chance for a medal by a UNC grad comes Wednesday when Alice Schmidt ’04 will compete in the women’s 800-meter event.

The U.S. field hockey team – with seven returning Olympians (including three from UNC) – expected to medal at these 2012 London Olympics. Those dreams died Saturday as undefeated New Zealand stopped the Americans 3-2.

The U.S., with only three points in pool play, needed to defeat New Zealand and then South Africa on Monday to have a chance at being one of the top two teams in their pool to reach the medal round.

Despite coming back to tie it at 2-2, the U.S. could not overcome giving up six penalty corner shots. New Zealand scored on three of those penalty chances against goalkeeper Amy Tran Swensen, a UNC grad who is considered the best goalie in the world.

Swensen had a very busy day against the aggressive New Zealanders but was able to stop every shot from the field – only the penalty shots got through. The winning shot, with only six minutes to play, ricocheted off Swensen’s left leg pad and landed just inside the bottom right corner of the goal.

The loss was no worse than a tie for the Americans because anything less than a win would eliminate the U.S. from any chance of advancing to the semi-finals. Swensen’s stellar goal play kept the U.S. in the match, giving the American a chance to tie it at 2-2.

A Swensen stick save with 13 minutes left kept it tied. A minute later, UNC’s Katelyn Falgowski used superb ball control in a tight situation in front of Swensen to get the Americans out of more trouble. But the U.S. could not mount any counter attack on offense.

New Zealand appeared to score at the 10:20 mark but the official checked the replay and discovered that the goal came on a deflection above the shoulder, which is illegal.

Still the United States couldn’t take advantage of the break. With the U.S. playing short handed after a yellow card, a New Zealand pass banged off U.S. captain Lauren Crandall’s foot in the scoring area, giving New Zealand the corner penalty shot that won the game.

A desperate U.S. team pulled Swensen from the game with five minutes left to insert an additional attacker. At the four-minute mark New Zealand picked up a yellow card and had to play the rest of the game short handed. Even with the resulting 11 on 9 attack, the Americans never really got close to tying the score, much less getting the additional goal needed to win.

The Americans, which also feature UNC’s Rachel Dawson, play their final game Monday at 5:45 a.m. against South Africa.

Goals by Abby Wambach, on a pass from Alex Morgan, and Sydney Leroux, on a pass from UNC’s Tobin Heath, defeated New Zealand 2-0 in the Olympics today to move the United States women’s soccer team into the semi-finals against either Canada or Great Britain.

Heath, who started for the first time since the opening game of the Olympics, played the whole game while fellow Tar Heel Heather O’Reilly came on in place of Megan Rapinoe for the last 20 minutes.

Those last 20 minutes, with both Heath and O’Reilly, proved to be the most intriguing part of the game. New Zealand, down 1-0, desperately attacked in this elimination match. The U.S. didn’t back down, trying to get the insurance goal. The substitution of O’Reilly may have been made for several reasons, not the least of which is that O’Reilly can attack and defend equally – which matched the late trend of the game.

Just after O’Reilly came in, Morgan was injured when she and New Zealand goalkeeper Jinny Bindon collided. O’Reilly had a couple of chances to score but, on one occasion, she couldn’t control a pass to her in front of the goal while, on another occasion, she made a good run at the goal but popped it just over the net.

It took a goal from Leroux, who had replaced Morgan, to wrap things up. While the media seemingly only wants to talk about Leroux scoring the goal, it took a long left-footed lead pass from Heath to put Leroux in clear position to score. Heath banged it about 40 yards down the left sideline with perfect pace for Leroux to run underneath it 20 yards out. Leroux control it and footed it in from about 10 yards away. NBC announcers never credited Heath and numerous afternoon reports on NBC said erroneously that the pass was from Christie Rampone.

Interesting, Leroux, a Canadian-born U.S. player, scored against Bindon, who was raised in the United States. In addition, New Zealand’s captain, Rebecca Smith, is a former Duke soccer captain who was born in the United States to a pair of New Zealand-born parents. There really should be no such thing as dual citizenship – your allegiance can really only be to one country.

It seems strange that a New Zealand soccer star could one day be president of the United States or that a U.S. soccer star could one day be prime minister of Canada. Leroux, who not only was born in Canada but lived there until she was 14, would probably not be elected though as he has been booed mercilessly in Canada for playing for the U.S. team.

Those boos could come again Sunday as the Americans will face Canada. Also adding intrigued to a game with Canada is that former Tar Heel Robyn Gayle plays for the Canadians.

UNC’s Heath and O’Reilly have each started two games during the Olympics. The U.S. bench is full of players that can start or play when called upon. Former U.S. player Brandi Chastain said that while all members of the team want to play, they are completely fine with someone else coming in. “As a team they have a collective awareness that everyone on the team is capable and confident to come in and do the job,” she said.

It sounds as if the juggling of a starting lineup as well as who will come on late in the game will continue for the gold medal favorite U.S. team.

The United States women’s field hockey team fell to Australia 1-0 today to dampen the chances of making the medal round.

UNC’s Amy Tran Swensen, as in the 2-1 opening loss to Germany, kept the Americans in the match with several tremendous saves in goal. Regarded as one of the best goalkeepers in the world, if not the best, Swensen made three diving saves over a five-minute period of the second half to energize the U.S.

It also took a couple of defensive plays by the other two Tar Heels on the team to keep the Australians from pulling away. Rachel Dawson knocked the ball away after a teammate gave up an unforced turnover deep in U.S. territory with 24 minutes to play and Katelyn Falgowski blocked a shot in front of the net with 18 minutes to go.

But the Americans made too many errors on offense, giving the ball over to the Aussies several times resulting in much more action in front of Swensen than in front of the Australian goalie.

Dawson had a chance to put the U.S. in front first with a hard shot on goal with seven minutes left in the first half. But an Australian illegally used her foot on the shot, which would have gone in for a score. As a result, the Americans got a penalty stroke, which is a one-on-one shot in front of the goal versus a standard penalty corner play. U.S. captain Lauren Crandall failed on the shot however.

Four minutes later, Australia’s Anna Flanagan scored in the top left corner of the goal on a penalty corner play to give the Aussies the only score they needed. With Swensen standing at just over five feet tall, the Aussies often went high to try to score, with many sailing over the net but this one fell just in.

This loss will probably prove to be the undoing for the United States. The Americans, who haven’t won a medal in field hockey since 1984, need to win against undefeated New Zealand on Saturday and then winless South Africa on Monday to have a chance at making the medal round. But they also need other teams above them to lose and they need to pick up the scoring because of tie-breaker rules.

Abby Wambach moved within 17 goals of Tar Heel Mia Hamm’s United States women’s soccer scoring record with a first-half goal that proved to be all the Americans needed in a 1-0 win over a physical North Korean team. It was Wambach’s third goal of the 2012 Olympic Games.

Wambach made her first appearance with the U.S. national team in 2001, two years after the Americans famous 1999 World Cup championship. Her first teammates included Hamm, Julie Foudy, Brandi Chastain, Kristine Lilly and Joy Fawcett.

“It felt like, maybe five years ago, it was too much to bite off,” Wambach said. “I wasn’t sure if I could have the kind of impact that Mia and the Fab Five had.”

The win over North Korea, accomplished in a steady rain, assures the U.S. of a first-place finish in pool play which matches the Americans up with weaker teams in the next round.

North Korea has already been involved in controversy when the team refused to take the field against South Korea for more than an hour because a graphic on the scoreboard accidently showed a South Korean flag associated with a North Korean player. The team has also been kicked out of the 2015 World Cup for having five players tested positive for steroids. In this game, the North Koreans roughed up the Americans, picking up four yellow cards, with one resulting in a red card ejection.

Heather O’Reilly, starting her second game in a row, didn’t back off. The NBC announcers praised her for her blue-collar attitude, saying it was a coach’s dream to have a player with that kind of work ethic.

While O’Reilly got a deflection shot off that went just wide as she took a knee to the head, it was her defense up and down the sideline that proved her worth. While the U.S. offense dominated the first half, the North Koreans got several scoring chances in the second half. O’Reilly thwarted one of those opportunities when she seemingly came charging out of nowhere from a long way back to punch the ball away.

O’Reilly and fellow Tar Heel Tobin Heath played on the field at the same time for the first time in the Olympics as Heath got a second-half start in place of Kelly Rapino, whose favorite Olympian of all time by the way is UNC’s Michael Jordan.

Heath got a good look at the goal in the 49th minute when she rushed the goal from the left side but popped the ball just over the net. Her biggest challenge of the day may have come four minutes later when her shoe came off and she struggled to get it back on in a hurry. Play doesn’t stop for such things in soccer.

Heath or O’Reilly have been on the field during a opponents’ 256-minute scoreless streak. France scored twice in the first minutes of the opening game but the Americans haven’t allowed a goal since.

The U.S. is known as an aggressive team that always wants to score but for much of the last 15 minutes the Americans seemed to run a sort of Dean Smith Four Corners as they worked the ball around killing precious time.

The U.S team faces New Zealand in the quarterfinals on Friday.

The U.S. field hockey team, behind the goalie play of UNC’s Amy Tran Swensen and suffocating defense by UNC’s Katelyn Falgowski, upset Argentina 1-0.

The win gives the Americans three crucial points in pool play after failing to get any points in an opening loss to Germany. Swensen blocked a pair of shots on goal in the last 20 minutes to help secure the win while Dawson shut down Luciana Aymar, who is considered the best field hockey player in the world. UNC’s Rachel Dawson also played a solid game over the entire 70 minutes.

But it took goal by Shannon Taylor with seven minutes left in the first half to provide the only goal of the game. Once again, for the second U.S. field hockey game, NBC was away at a commercial break when the U.S. scored its only goal. The difference in coverage is obvious as NBC aired the U.S. women’s soccer match without commercial interruption earlier in the day. NBC also chose to show the last minutes of the France-Colombia soccer match rather than the first 13 minutes of the U.S. field hockey match.

The U.S. team used an up tempo offense and an unrelenting defense to put it in a better position to win a medal. The Americans haven’t won a medal since 1984 while Argentina has medaled each of the last three Olympics. It was the first time in five chances that the U.S. has beaten Argentina in the Olympics. Maybe it’s time to start showing the U.S. team’s entire matches. Of course there may not be many people watching the next game live anyway as the U.S. takes on Australia Thursday at 5:45 a.m. Eastern time.