Joseph White

VANCOUVER, British Columbia -- The final goal in the game that put the U.S. women's soccer team into the Olympics was scored by Alex Morgan, the super-sub who made her name at last year's World Cup.

That's the same Alex Morgan who wasn't a sub at all in the Americans' previous game, leading to an interesting moment in a meeting with coach Pia Sundhage.

The formality is that the U.S. beat Costa Rica 3-0 Friday night to earn a ticket to London. The game was quite a bit more suspenseful than expected, with the Americans overcoming some early sloppiness and waiting until deep into the second half to put the game away.

ASHBURN, Va. -- It happened again Wednesday at Redskins Park. One quarterback talked about winning the starting job. The other talked about losing it.

This time it was Rex Grossman getting the special treatment, holding a news conference upstairs in the old Washington Redskins media room.

At the same time, John Beck was downstairs standing in front of his locker, dealing with another demotion.

Only, this time, the roles were reversed. Beck was pumped, anxious to start an NFL game for the first time in four years, while Grossman was the one with the uncomfortable pauses in his answers.

"Things change," Beck said, "in the blink of an eye."

Beck was anointed as the new Washington Redskins No. 1 quarterback Wednesday, chosen by coach Mike Shanahan to start Sunday's game against the Carolina Panthers. The 30-year-old former second-round pick gets the nod for the first time since 2007, when he was a rookie for a Miami Dolphins team that went 1-15.

"Definitely excited. There's been a lot of hard work that's gone into this," Beck said. "You never know when your opportunity's going to come, and you've always got to stay ready. I've tried to do that."

ASHBURN, Va. -- Down Under, Sav Rocca was in the middle of the action.

You might not understand his stats, but he had a load of them: 748 "goals," 1,871 "kicks," 1,318 "marks," 2,360 "disposals," 411 "behinds," 219 "tackles" -- all in 257 games over 15 seasons with the Collingwood Magpies and the North Melbourne Kangaroos of the Australian Football League.

WASHINGTON -- For House Speaker John Boehner, breaking par can be as elusive as breaking the spiraling federal debt.

But a few hours roaming 18 holes at the country club can be a welcome diversion from the daily grind in the nation's capital. In some cases, the leader in the clubhouse might very well be the leader of the House, the 61-year-old Ohio Republican with the cringe-inducing hitch in his swing.

"If you play with him, you can't watch him swing," said Cincinnati businessman Jerry Vanden Eynden, a lifelong friend. "You've got to turn your back. I keep telling him, 'You play so damn much, you ought to get good."'

BETHESDA, Md. -- Webb Simpson called it a "bad rule." He was penalized a stroke because the ball moved as he was addressing it on the green, costing him one stroke and perhaps his first PGA Tour victory.

The U.S. Golf Association appears to agree. Vice President Thomas O'Toole said Monday there will be talks to modify the rule, with any change taking place at the start of 2012.

WASHINGTON -- The head coach is battling Parkinson's disease, daily mourns the loss of his sister and isn't fully fluent in the language used by his players.

One senior co-captain nearly quit school after her brother died. The other is a junior college transfer who was picked on as a kid.