The wheels of the bus turn and turn. The questions about the bus keep coming as well. The US team bus at the Solheim Cupis it.
The first time on Saturday night in the Netherlands, when Team USA broke into a wild celebration of Jennifer Kupcho’s fourball heroicswho had returned in the last match of the day. What looked like a sure deficit going into Sunday was now deadlocked, and Americans were in a festive mood.
Beers go out on the team bus. As videos of the moment circulated on social media, so did questions — and criticism — from online commenters.
Wasn’t it too early to celebrate? How did the optics look? Can the antiquity of the albity lead to a disappointment? Do you give the Europeans extra motivation?
Leave it to the Internet to pour cold water on you in good time.
In the euphoric aftermath of Kupcho’s clutch game, Stanford said she felt the “tide” had turned. The momentum had shifted in his team’s favor. But this was Saturday. On Sunday, mine changed again. The Europeans came out hot, winning six of the first eight singles matches to claim a lead they never relinquished.
Stanford was not asked directly about the bus trip, but he gave some of his thoughts on the matter anyway when he was asked to try to manage his team through such an emotional high.
“Well, it’s a little tricky because you never want to take it away from that moment,” he said.
After all, it’s a fine line, allowing for the right amount of exuberance without letting things get out of hand. Stanford had tried to step on it.
“The worst thing I could do is go in there and be like, okay, everybody, come on this high,” he said. “So you don’t want to get away from those moments. We’ll never see anything like that again.”
Stanford said she had checked with her players to make sure the partying hadn’t come at the expense of sleep.
“But I talked to Kupcho and everybody and I’m like, ‘Yeah, we got a good rest and — but, yeah, it took a minute to come out because it was a high altitude.’
Europe, as it turned out, had faced a version of the same test the day before.
Assistant captain Mel Reid described a similarly emotional moment after Friday’s session, when Celine Boutier hit a clutch save to save half a point. The mood on the Europe team bus that evening, Reid said, was hardly subdued. But it wasn’t filmed.
“We were on the team bus – the skipper had to do some press. We were on the team bus. I said a few words. No one could hear me, which I think was great. The team bus is a special place for the European team. I think that’s where we really unite, we really come together. We put on music and it’s a special place. I’m glad there are no cameras.”
Whatever happened on that bus carried over to the team hotel, where Reid said the mood changed again.
“We came to the hotel and we put on a song, and I don’t know what it was, I just felt that it changed the mood and united us. It was, like, strange. Like, we all became alone, we forgot what happened, like the disappointment, and we just came back.”
On Sunday morning, Reid said, pep talks were barely needed.
“None of us needed to talk to any player, really. They just knew what their job was today in a very calm, passionate and fierce way. The horses are ready, let them go, and they achieved it.”
The bus had the titles. The horses take the Cup.
