Last year I wrote at length about an Iberian invasion, as Spaniards dominated a range of sports throughout 2008. Rafael Nadal had surpassed Roger Federer to take the top spot in the world of men’s tennis. The Spanish national soccer team went undefeated through the year, taking the Euro 2008 championship in the process over World Cup holder Italy. And Carlos Sastre held off Cadel Evans to win the Tour de France, following compatriots Oscar Pereiro and Alberto Contador as champion to keep the streak alive in cycling’s showcase event. 

The way this week is going, it’s looking safer and safer to say that 2009 has not been nearly as kind to España as the previous campaign. But Spain’s loss is every fan’s gain, as it opens up the field once again to allow new heroes to emerge. Giants are falling all over the place once again... who will take their place? Will another juggernaut step into the void to take over top-dog status, or will the minnows get their chance to feast? Everybody step aboard as we wander around the world in this week’s edition of A Non-Traditional Sports Fan in America...

Wimbledon has begun this year without last year’s champion in the men’s draw. Rafael Nadal, he of the shocking early departure at the grounds he’d owned over the past half-decade, has dropped out of the third Grand Slam tournament of the season after coming down with tendonitis in both knees. It is certainly a sad state of affairs for tennis’ top tournament to take place without perhaps its greatest current male star, but injuries are an all-too-common part of life for the professional athlete.

The problem here is that Nadal continues to push himself harder and harder even as he matures into his game. When you can assert your dominance seemingly at will, it sure is fun to keep the winning going. But the hard push of the clay-court Masters series in advance of the French Open took its toll on Nadal in a way that could’ve been avoidable. Winning Masters events in Monte Carlo and Barcelona and Rome is nice... winning Grand Slams in Paris and London is much more satisfying. All the deep runs throughout tournaments -- he also made it to the finals of the Madrid Masters before losing to Roger Federer, an ominous sign of his flagging dominance. Robin Soderling would punctuate the downturn with a fourth-round defeat at the French Open, Nadal’s first-ever loss at the Parisian venue, before losing to Federer in the final.

But that doesn’t mean that Wimbledon is now a foregone conclusion for the man who just tied Pete Sampras as the most successful Grand Slam champion in tennis history. Roger Federer may have the inside track to his sixth title at the All-England Lawn Tennis and Croquet Club, but that doesn’t mean that there won’t be a slew of capable challengers poised to wrest the championship from his grasp. Sure, Taiwan’s Yen-Hsun Lu couldn’t knock off the Swiss powerhouse in the first round... but that is saying little, considering the top Asian player on the circuit has never taken anything but hardcourt titles.

He could face a rematch against Robin Soderling, the man he defeated at Roland Garros in the final to take his first French Open title, in the fourth round... or he could take on equally-daunting young Spaniard Nicolas Almagro. Another tough Spaniard, Fernando Verdasco, or rising French star Jo-Wilfried Tsonga could await in the quarterfinals. Usual suspect Novak Djokovic could be there in the semifinals, or it could just as easily be Tommy Haas -- the man who gave Federer fits in the fourth round in Paris, taking the first two sets before Federer rallied to keep his title run alive.

And the challenger that everyone in Britain has rallied behind, Andy Murray, might just be there in the finals opposite Federer. Murray has the hopes of his nation on his shoulders, with every soul on the island praying that he might just be the one to end the domestic drought that is now at 73 years and counting. Not since Fred Perry took the last of his three straight Wimbledon titles in 1936 has a Briton won on home soil at the sport’s most venerable venue.

Murray has played incredibly well this spring, overtaking Djokovic for the number-three spot in the world ATP rankings behind Nadal and Federer. He has already broken one streak of British ignominy, earning his first grass-court title at Queen’s Club in London. It was the first time since 1938, when Henry Austin took the title, that a countryman had taken the second-most heralded grass title. The hype surrounding Murray is boiling to a fever pitch, but he is level-headed enough to handle the pressure.

And that goes without mentioning the women’s side of the draw. Venus Williams is undoubtedly the favorite... but just like Federer, there could be some stumbling blocks along the way. Should she get through Kateryna Bondarenko in the second round, Carla Suarez Navarro could await. Ana Ivanovic looks like the likely foe in the fourth round, and Agnieszka Radwanska or Jelena Jankovic could be there in the quarterfinals.

Her sister Serena, on the other side of the draw, looks to have a much clearer path to the semifinals. Daniela Hantuchova or Ai Sugiyama would be the fourth-round competition, with Victoria Azarenka waiting in the quarters. Neither should scare that girl straight outta Compton.

Other than that, the women’s game remains a state of limbo. Ivanovic and Jankovic, the Serbians who looked last year like either or both were on the cusp of taking over the women’s game, have failed to develop any consistency. Dinara Safina still can’t summit the mountain, Radwanska isn’t stepping up, and Sharapova continues to battle injuries. No one player wants to step up and dominate... or it could be a simple case of parity. Ever since the premature retirement of Justine Henin, the game’s dominant presence, before last year’s French Open at the tender age of 25, it has become increasingly difficult to predict just who might win from week to week. Everyone loves an assertive champion, but there’s something to be said about a field where new winners are emerging all the time...

This is something I’ve extolled throughout both incarnations of this column when discussing tennis’ country-club cousin, golf. Just like Lance Armstrong was the one name everyone recognized amongst most casual sports fans when discussing cycling, so it has been with Tiger Woods when discussing golf. But when guys like Trevor Immelman and Justin Rose, Rocco Mediate and Padraig Harrington, and now 29-year-old Lucas Glover step up to Woods and Mickelson, it only strengthens golf’s long-term popularity. Creating more everyman heroes allow more fans to identify with their champions. Very few of us can be like Eldrick, winning consistently year after year... but we all have the potential in us to go out and play the round of our lives.

So how did Glover go about taking charge and conquering soggy Bethpage Black? The tale began on the traditional Thursday opening round, when few golfers were able to get started as thunderstorms forced the suspension of play. Once the first round settled on Friday, Glover was five strokes behind early leader Mike Weir. The Canadian had gone out, conditions be damned, and shot an overwhelming six strokes under par in his opening eighteen. Glover had shot an opening 69 to sit at one under par, tied with Mickelson and five strokes ahead of Tiger.

The second round ended with Glover matching Weir’s score of the first round and pulling within one stroke of Ricky Barnes, another young gun on the PGA Tour at age 28 who was showing real promise in leading the U.S. Open field into the weekend. The third round saw both golfers shoot on-par 70, to keep Barnes in the lead and Glover right behind. And then, as the traditional Father’s Day finale got pushed a day late due to the uncompromising climate, all eyes settled not on the two young leaders but the guys everyone expected to come out of their shells to take charge when it counts most.

But Tiger and Phil couldn’t do it today. Glover was the one who, in the end, proved most resilient in the pressure situation. And golf can celebrate for the fact. A guy who had not even made the cut in three previous U.S. Opens was now champion. Glover, whose one and only professional win prior to Bethpage had come at the FUNAI Classic at the Walt Disney World Resort in 2005, was now a major tournament champion. Even if he never takes another victory of this magnitude, the mere fact that he was able to challenge on this one wet weekend is indicative of a greater trend. No longer is golf a one- or two-name sport, for no one man can win every contest...

The Spanish soccer team didn’t think they’d have to learn that reality any time soon. Throughout the past year they have dominated their competition, bringing a 35-game undefeated streak into their Confederations Cup semifinal contest against an American side that was a surprise winner against the dark-horse Egyptian squad in the quarterfinals. Few people gave the Yankees any chance against the European Cup holders. Listening to the Dan Patrick Show on the radio at work, his crew was courteous enough to say that it would be a moral victory should the Americans be able to score a single goal on Spanish goalkeeper Iker Casillas.

This wasn’t mere hyperbole, or a token courtesy. The Spaniards had not allowed a goal yet in the competition, strolling to the semifinals with victories of 5-0 over New Zealand, 1-0 over Iraq and 2-0 over hosts South Africa. The Americans had lost to both Brazil and Italy, squeaking into the semifinals on goal differential alone after defeating Egypt 3-0 in the final group-stage match. It would’ve been diagnosable insanity had someone definitively declared that the underdog Yankees would win this match.

But win they did, fairly dominating the European champions in Bloemfontein to stun fans around the world and set up either a rematch with Brazil or a final against the host nation. Both teams came out onto the pitch with fire, each finding quality scoring chances thwarted through the first fifteen minutes. Then, in the twenty-sixth minute, Clint Dempsey cut from the left and slotted the ball to striker Jozy Altidore at the edge of the box. Altidore left Capdevila flat-footed and without any support from either Carlos Puyol or Gerard Pique and advanced on goal. Unleashing a low-cruising missile off his foot, Casillas was unable to get to the ball as it found the corner of the net and put the Americans inexplicably ahead.

Spain fought valiantly to tie up the game throughout the remainder of the first half, but failed to find the target as Everton starter Tim Howard continued to turn away all challenges. The second half saw more of the same, Spain pressing the attack and the United States countering at every chance. The strategy looked like it would pay off at any moment for the world’s number-one side... but it was the Americans, not the Spaniards, who found the net again in the seventy-fourth minute.

On the counterattack, Landon Donovan once again made Capdevila look foolish in defense. He drove a hard shot across the goalmouth, which clipped Pique. Casillas was caught out of position by the deflection, but Sergio Ramos was right there on the ball, seemingly ready to tap the ball to security. He whiffed on the attempt, taking a touch and leaving the juicy rebound right there for Clint Dempsey. He didn’t fail when given his opportunity, tapping into the empty net from six yards out to double the advantage with but a quarter-hour left.

Spain pressed the pace to the final whistle, never giving up despite the long odds. But it would prove too little too late, and the undefeated streak was over...

Will another streak die in this year’s Tour de France? Alberto Contador will be back in the race after his Astana team was denied entry to last year’s race and Contador was deprived his chance to defend his maillot jaune. But the man who has said that, despite being on a rival squad, he would help his countryman to another victory over the American tandem of Lance Armstrong and Levi Leipheimer will not line up at the start. Alejandro Valverde, who has been handed a two-year ban from riding on Italian roads due to an independent Italian Olympic Committee investigation into his involvement with the 2006 Operacion Puerto doping scandal, has been denied entry to the 2009 Tour by directors ASO.

Contador can still win despite the lack of this particular ally, but it was a nice wild-card to be able to play should the Americans once again try to show up the Spaniard. Stay tuned next week for a bigger Tour de France preview. It seems as though Spain’s period of dominance is waning, but there’s still the potential for at least one streak to remain alive. Every little bit of good luck would help, but it seems to be sorely in short supply.

This can only mean more excitement is in store for all us spectators. Opportunities are always right there on the horizon for a new hero to emerge and captivate the public imagination. So don’t turn away as the summer rolls on... there’s no slow moment if you make sure to look in the right place...