After day two of the Ryder Cup at Le Golf National, Omnisport's Travis Durkee assesses the United States' hopes of retaining the trophy.
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The United States came into this Ryder Cup with what many believed to be a superior team. But after two days, Europe have a comfortable 10-6 lead heading into Sunday's singles matches.
That's the bad news if you're a US fan. The good? A four-point deficit is certainly not insurmountable.
There have been 41 prior editions of the Ryder Cup and only twice has a team erased such a deficit - the USA in 1999 at Brookline and Europe in 2012 at Medinah.
If US captain Jim Furyk is smart, he will find a few YouTube videos about those tournaments to share with the team before the sun rises on Sunday.
Europe busted out of the gates on Saturday, winning three out of four matches after sweeping the afternoon on Friday. The USA then split the afternoon foursomes, but although they were unable to gain ground, there were several positive takeaways.
Firstly, Bubba Watson and Webb Simpson won their match, something they were counted on doing after sitting out both morning sessions.
Jordan Spieth and Justin Thomas, meanwhile, are responsible for half of the USA's points, after they picked up a second point on day two against the heavily supported duo of Rory McIlroy and Ian Poulter.
Brooks Koepka and Dustin Johnson pushed the steady pair of Justin Rose and Henrik Stenson to the brink, and Bryson DeChambeau seemed to shake his funk alongside Tiger Woods in a loss to Francesco Molinari and Tommy Fleetwood that looked much worse on paper.
The USA can also look forward to a day that splits up the unstoppable Fleetwood and Molinari, who account for four of Europe's points and a handful of tournament records.
The reality is eight and a half points will be tough to come by for Team USA on Sunday, especially with European support you can almost hear from the Eiffel Tower nearly 20 miles away. But, we have seen it done before.
Allow Watson to put it poetically when asked about the tall task facing the USA: "We better play good."
