It was all set: All Canada had to do was hold on to a lead in the completion of a rain-suspended preliminary game to hand Team USA its first loss in Olympic softball since 2000.

Smoked meat for everyone!

But they blew it.

Faster than you could say, "Je me souviens," the Canadians forgot how to play.

The U.S. scored four unearned runs in the sixth and rolled to an 8-1 win, their 18th straight dating back to 2000.

But they were ripe.

The U.S. had to play Japan right before the completion of the suspended game. They won, 7-0, and it was on to Canada.

Again.

In the first inning of the teams' prelim game Thursday, Canada had scored a run off an error, an illegal pitch and a sacrifice fly in the first inning, the first time Team USA had trailed in Olympic competition since the gold medal game against Japan in 2000.

After two rain delays the game was suspended due to inclement weather, the U.S. still down, 1-0.

Then yesterday, under the bluest skies Beijing has seen in two dynasties, Canada imploded with two out in the sixth.

With runners on first and second and two out, they chose to walk slugger Crystl Bustos, the world's most dangerous hitter, and put the tying run on third. Pitcher Dione Meier then hit Kelly Kretschman, forcing in one run and allowing the runners to advance. Meier then fired a wild pitch, allowing another to score. On the next play shortstop Jennifer Salling overthrew first base, allowing two more to score.

Ballgame.

Cautiously, afterward Meier said of walking Bustos, "As a pitcher, you have to do those things sometimes."

After the rest of the mess unfolded -- or, in Canada's case, folded -- Team USA smelled the blood and fed. They clobbered Meier, now clearly rattled, for four more two-out runs in the seventh.

"I wasn't happy with the way it went (in the sixth) because we didn't score our own runs," Bustos said. "It was nice to have that seventh."

Cat Osterman completed yesterday's suspended game and allowed a seventh-inning hit. Monica Abbott, who started the game Thursday against Canada, started against Japan yesterday and allowed one hit.

Those are the only hits allowed by the U.S. in its four games, along with the one run.

It might have been enough.

Below: Gratuitous picture of Team USA pitcher Jennie Finch, who did not play yesterday.

So there I was, walking from the swimming venue to the Media Press Center, Ipod in ears, feeling very much like a music video as I walked the streets of Beijing. ``I used to rule the world,’’ crooned the Coldplay song.

Back in the MPC, reaching for the phone card that accesses the internet everywhere here, I realized my wallet was gone. I had taken it out while resolving connection issues at the swimming venue. So I trudged back to the Water Cube -- this time feeling not at all like a music video.

It wasn’t on the table where I left it. ``That sucks for ewe,’’ a man with a French accent said. Couldn’t tell if it was a translation thing, or he was gloating over my American misery. Anyway, went to the Help desk, where the following exchange took place.

``I lost my wallet.’’

``Could you describe it please?’’

``Well it’s black. And…’’

No ``and’’ was needed. The black wallet was produced instantly, without even opening it to match names or photos.

Workers here carry out their instructions meticulously. Go to put your lunch tray in the garbage and three people greet you. Just try and get to a door before they can open it for you.

The laundry experience – well all I can say is those folks down there in the basement are brave, very brave.

In the case of the wallet, I figure they were instructed to ask for a description. Once given, produce the missing item.

Their seems to be a manual they are following that covers anything. Some have even suggested it covers their enthusiasm, but I think it’s real. Yeah I know a big reason China secured these Olympics and spent at least $40 billion to make it happen was to change our perception of them. But a human can only fake enthusiasm for so long, and in the case of Atlanta volunteers in ’96, not very long at all.

No these people genuinely like you, and want you to like them. They go out of their way to help, out of their way to communicate too. They smile, you smile back, all day long and into the night. It gives you energy, it really does.

They don’t get out much, the Chinese. They know us only through advertisements and images. They have the world in their backyard for two weeks, and they are curious.

Wallet in pocket, I headed back to the MPC, Ipod playing, again feeling like a music video. Back in 1984, when I took a three-week tour of China and Japan with a high school soccer team (thank you again, Rich Connor and Wilkes-Barre Times-Leader), the song that stuck in my head was ``Roam’’ by the B-52s. ``Roam if you want to, roam around the world.’’ Now it is the new Coldplay hit. ``I used to rule the world, it used to rise when I gave the word.’’ Given that you people keep waking up just when I want to go to sleep, that’s just about right.

At the entrance of the MPC, there was this big tank thing. Armored Personnel Carrier they called it, and it was part of a beefed-up security detail. There had been some unrest apparently out there in one of those provinces beyond our Olympic bubble, but I couldn’t stop from thinking it had something to do with the bizarre stabbing death earlier this week, no matter what the official word on that is.

Richard Jewell has forever officially made me wary of official words.

Anyway there was this tank thing on both ends of the MPC, and for a moment I thought of getting my picture taken in front of it with a flower in my hand, like that anonymous man who stood in front of a tank in Tiananmen Square during the student uprisings of 1989.

But I’d like to see my family again in a few weeks, not years, so I reconsidered.

That said, security here feels no different than any of this century’s post 9/11 Olympics, and has actually run smoother. Security screening occurs before you get on a bus to enter the fenced in Olympic Green, and for the rest of your time inside, you move around freely. In the past, your bag would be screened at every stop, at every venue.

But once you walk outside those fences, tread carefully. Because you are watched.

Anyway, for whatever reason, I seem to be on the same time schedule as reporters from Kazakhstan. (No Borat jokes, please. OK, just one. OK, two. OK… no stop right now!).

I know they are from Kazakhstan because they wear team uniforms, as does Russia and a few others. This started in either Athens or Turin. I don’t know the advantage of media dressing in a team uniform, especially, since, for the most part, these men and women are not in any better shape than their beer-guzzling western counterparts.

And they need more than one uniform apiece. Especially during the summer in Beijing. Please.

Oh by the way, that national anthem in ``Borat’’? The one that sings, ``Greatest country in the world, all the other countries are run by little girls’’? Not really the anthem. Just in case you thought it was.

Let’s see, what else. Headlines! Of course. My favorite was the one in the China Daily heralding India’s first-ever gold medal in shooting. ``Indians go on a shooting spree,’’ it said, which was both inaccurate and given the current climate, a little dangerous.

The other appeared in the Israeli newspaper Haaretz after the miraculous finish by the U.S. men’s 4 by 100 freestyle relay team.

``Two Jews and a black man help Phelps fulfill Olympic Dream.’’

Brian Schiff, that’s for you, big guy. Still haven’t found any Israeli-Beijing swag, but the clock hasn’t run out yet.

Anyway, here’s the link: http://www.haaretz.com/hasen/spages/1010665.html.

Check out this line too, about U.S. anchor Jason Lezak:

 ``An amateur until the age of 20 who had played water polo and baseball, Lezak - a good Jewish boy from California - put on a great show."

 Well, I think that catches me up. Oh one last thing. After a long day that began with Michael Phelps breaking the all-time record of gold medals and ended with a U.S. boxing victory at night, I arrived back at my apartment to discover I had lost my keys.

The people on the desk let me in and gave me a new set of keys in the morning. They are also changing the locks today.

They’re still smiling, but give me some more time.

I think I can break them.

And on the fifth day, he rests ... Sort of.

For the first time since the competition began in earnest at the Olympics, Micheal Phelps will not be swimming for a medal.

Don't worry, you will still see him on NBC's prime-time coverage Wednesday night here in the States, with the 200 individual medlay semifinals. As the NBC broadcasters pointing out in Tuesday night's telecast, all Phelps does is eat, swim and sleep. And we predict he might be carrying the flag at the closing ceremonies.

He already has five gold medals to bring his record career total to 11. He also has some more work to do over the next few days.

Aug. 14 in Beijing

11:07 a.m.: 200 Individual Medley semifinals

7:40 p.m.: 100 Butterfly preliminaries

Aug. 15

10:45 a.m.: 200 IM Final (medal event)

11:16  a.m.: 100 Butterfly semifinals

Aug. 16

10:07 a.m.: 100 Butterfly final (medal event)

Aug. 17

10:55 a.m.: 4 x 100 medley relay final (medal event)

Shawn Johnson is ready for her closeup ...

The next American darling of women's gymnastics will compete on all four apparatus in the team finals Wednesday morning (Tuesday night in prime time in the U.S.).

The top eight teams from the qualifications on Sunday compete, although the scores do not carry over. The U.S. team trailed the host Chinese by 1.475 points.

Here is the lineup for the Americans:

Vault: Bridget Sloan, Shawn Johnson, Alicia Sacramone

Uneven bars: Chellsie Memmel, Shawn Johnson, Nastia Liukin

Balance beam: Alicia Sacramone, Nastia Liukin, Shawn Johnson

Floor exercise: Alicia Sacramone, Nastia Liukin, Shawn Johnson

The women's all-around final comes Thursday night in the states (Friday morning in Beijing).

It ended, for all intents, when Dwight Howard dunked and trimmed the three-point lead Yao Ming had given China to one point.

That made it 3-2. With that, the possibility of a shutout vanished.

Gone, too, were China's chances of beating Dream Team 2k8. More than 1 billion viewers worldwide (China has a population of 1.3 billion) were expected to watch the teams' Olympic debut, won by the United States, 101-70.

President George W. Bush attended the game. So did Chinese President Hu Jintao. They were among the multinational throng of 11,083 (officially, but, hey, this is China; the arena holds 18,000) that delighted in the marquee moment at the Beijing Olympics.

"I had five dunks in a game," said Kobe Bryant, the Dream Team's most popular player here. "That was because of the crowd. Last time I had five dunks in a game, I was in high school. I was 17."

They saw a team assembled as much for chemistry as for combined talent commit mistake after mistake, but they were errors of effort, not bravado. Hybrid scorers Kobe, LeBron James, Dwayne Wade and their supporting cast didn't play perfectly, but they played hard, as did the Chinese.

Only, the Chinese didn't have 12 pampered millionaires fighting for their country's redemption in the sport it created. The U.S. didn't win a gold medal in Athens in 2004, and they didn't win a gold in the 2006 world championships. So, they are extra focused here, now.

They played out of control, cheated on defense and forced shots, allowing a cooler Chinese team to hang in until the end of the first half. The U.S. stormed to a 10-point run in which James scored four of his 18 and Wade had two of his game-high 19. The lead was 26 at the end of three. It was 35, eventually.

Dubya added to the drama. American coach Mike Krzyzewski (who might not know the meaning of "superego") supplied the postgame scope and sincerity.

Chinese coach Jonas Kazlauskas, a crusty Lithuanian, supplied the postgame candor, and the humor.

"Psychologically, it was a very difficult for us to play the game," Kaz said, citing home-court pressure and his team's talent and conditioning deficit.

After Yao dropped an opening three-pointer, the led by four 3 1/2 minutes into the game, they began, perhaps, to freeze up in the moment: "Maybe this was the biggest mistake: We started thinking this can continue."

Asked how he expected to regroup and usher his charges forward, maybe as far as a rematch with the Dream Team in the finals, he sighed:

"This is a good dream, to see what you see."

Not as good a dream as Bush saw earlier, when he visited beach volleyballers Misty May-Treanor and Kerri Walsh on Saturday: .

Dribbles

The U.S. missed 14 of their first 15 three-point shots and finished 7-for-24. ... The men's 4x100 relay team set a world record in a qualifying heat, touching in 3:12.23. They swim for gold tomorrow at about 11:20 p.m. Eastern time.

Visa, Speedo and PowerBar rejoiced as their workhorse, Michael Phelps, smashed his 2 1/2-week-old world record in winning the 400-meter individual medley. Phelps touched in 4:03.84, 1.41 seconds ahead of his mark at the Olympic Trials in Omaha on July 29, the first gold medal in his quest for a record eight at these Games. He won six gold medals and two bronze in Athens in 2004.

Teammate Ryan Lochte led the race at the end of the third lap, the first of the two backstroke laps, but Phelps regained it as the swimmers touched at the end of the backstroke stage and began the fifth lap. From there, Phelps buzzed through the breaststroke and, in the freestlye leg, opened a sizable lead over Lochte and Hungarian Cseh Laszlo, who won the silver, 2.32 seconds behind Phelps. Lochte won the bronze, 4.25 seconds off the pace. It was his third Olympic medal, having won silver in the 200 IM and gold in the 4x200 relay in Athens.

As President George W. Bush and his father, the former President, looked on, Phelps, 23, said he looked to his right and smiled shook off his competition, which, he said, was surprisingly close early.

"I wasn't comfortable after the first 200. We were pretty close together," Phelps said. "That's not how it usually is after 200."

The race soon fell into form, however, the crowd swelling as the announcer updated Phelps' amazing pace.

 On the medal stand, Phelps, seasoned and salty in his third Games, clearly was moved as the National Anthem played. He had overcome a year of serious challeneges to his dominance; a wrist injury that required surgery; and the mounting pressure of mountainous expectation.

"I wanted to sing," he said, "but I couldn't stop crying. I have no idea why."

Like Phelps' corporate sponsors, the United States was elated, too.

DRIPS

Phelps said he wants this 400 IM to be his last, though coach Bob Bowman wants him to continue it. ... Havertown's Brendan Hansen shook off a shaky 100-meter breaststroke qualifying heat Saturday to finish with the fifth-best time in Sunday's semifinals, though his 59.94 seconds was well off his world record 59.13. Hansen, who won silver in Athens, swims in the final at 10:30 p.m. Eastern time Sunday on NBC. ... Katie Hoff saw her world record set at the U.S. Trials shattered in the 400 IM as she took the bronze, 2.26 seconds behind Austrialia's Stephanie Rice, who finished in 4:29.25, 1.87 seconds faster than Hoff's record.  

Ryan Zweng was on his way to an study group meeting at a cafe next to the Drum Tower but noticed a much larger than usual crowd milling about the square outside the north gate, most of them press types.

He soon learned that Todd Bachman, 62, wife Barbara, also 62, and their Chinese tower guide had been attacked on the tower's second story by a Chinese national wielding a knife. The assailant, Tang Yongming, 47, killed Todd Bachman, critically injured Barbara and also injured the guide before leaping to his death 130 feet below.

Zweng, like the Bachmans, looks painfully American. A 23-year-old San Franciscan freshly graduated from NYU, he was asked if he feared for his safety during his month-long stay here:

"I can't say I feel targeted. But it is in your consciousness."

It didn't seem to bother Orange County, Calif. residents Mark and Lynn Ledford, a fortysomething couple who couldn't look more made-for-TV American: tanned, blond and slim, they learned of the killing from a pair of reporters lunching in the same restaurant a few blocks away.

The Ledfords soon meandered over to the Tower to have a look -- where enterprising journalists swarmed their telegenic selves. 

UPDATE: Barbara Bachman suffered multiple lacerations and stab wounds in the attack and underwent 8 hours of surgery, according to a statement from the USOC released Sunday morning.  She is in critical but stable condition at a Beijing hospital. Family members, including her daughter Elisabeth Bachman McCutcheon and son-in-law Hugh McCutcheon, are with her.

The U.S. volleyball team will open play against Venezuela later today, as scheduled. Hugh McCutcheon will not be on the bench. Assistant coach Ron Larsen will serve as interim head coach.

Less than 4 hours after the murder there were no police; no crime-scene tape; no securing of the area. None of the locals seemed to have been disturbed by the killing of an American a stone's throw from their homes and shops.

It was as if nothing happened.

But then, here, that's no surprise.

There was no significant authoritative presence outside the Drum Temple, site of the grisly murder of an American attending the Olympics in China.

Traffic whizzed past, pedestrians strolled by and passenger cars tightly ringed the perimeter of the structure where, near noon here Saturday, a Chinese national killed Lakeville, Minn. businessman Todd Bachman, 62, with a knife and gravely injured his wife, Barbara, also 62, while they toured the Drum Temple, a central and ancient Beijing landmark. Their Chinese guide also was injured.

Their daughter, former Olympic indoor volleyball player Elisabeth Bachman McCutcheon, was nearby. McCutcheon's husband, Hugh, coaches the men's indoor team. As of this posting, his team's game against Venezuela at 12:30 p.m. local time Sunday -- about 24 hours after the killings -- remained unchanged.

Authorities identified the killer as 47-year-old Tang Yongming.  

Afterward, the locals went about their business as usual. Coffee shops and sundry stores not 10 feet from the tower's walls catered to ghoulish tourists and harried journalists, their owners generally claiming ignorance that anything happened; or, ignorance of what happened; or, if they submitted to an interview, declining to identify themselves.

They clearly wanted to distance themselves from the incident that embarrassed a nation 12 hours after its coming-out party. The magnificent Opening Ceremony of Friday was a frivolous expenditure come Saturday's killing.

But then, only the truly foolish would offer candid comment on such a terrible thing -- a rare violent crime against foreigners in this controlled city, a resonant act targeted at the country still shocked by its own vulnerability, still numb to the world's view of it.

This is, after all, a communist country, controlling, repressive, owner of a human rights record so tainted it had to promise the IOC to improve it to earn an Olympics. Critics of China say it reneged on those promises.

Authorities and spokespeople did not connect Yongming with any terrorist group or other movement. The USOC took pains to point out that the victims wore nothing identifying them as Americans, though a later report quoted an IOC official as saying one of them wore a volleyball pin. Regardless, even with the Olympics underway, Americans stick out here; and, of course, Americans have a distinct accent.

Officials painted him as a possibly disturbed individual. The "why" might nor matter.

What's done is done, and to Americans, by a Chinese.

One transplanted Beijing resident, fully cognizant of the Games' import to China and how awful Saturday's murder made the country look, perhaps crystallized his people's sentiment:

"I'm disappointed. Surprised. Maybe this hurts relations with China and America."

Maybe ... but maybe not on China's end. More than half a day after the incident China's government had no comment on the killings.

Saturday night, 12 hours after the attack, many of Beijing's 17 million residents and, presumably, many of the 1.3 billion people in the country had no idea what had happened.

It did not air on the government-controlled news.

It began, sadly, with a long wait.

The local organizers failed to announce an interruption of bus services to and from the main press center (MPC), a logical interruption necessary to manage the athletes' passage from their Village to the stadium for Opening Cermonies. The interruption in bus service stranded hundreds of media types who were uninterested or unable to attend the Opening Ceremonies.

This was the first egregious mistake by the locals, who have been spectacularly helpful and willing and wonderful. There was no audible shouting in outrage, possibly because of the constant military presence.

Thirty steamy minutes of line-waiting for a cab netted us (distinguished Inquirer Phil Sheridan and me) a clean, small car driven by a clean, small man .

As we got in, the cab was approached by a harried fiftysomething, one eye askew, laden with equipment, shvitzing like a nafka at temple. He was eager to accept our announced offer to share our cab to North Star Media Village.

Unfortunately, "North Star Media Village" comprised about 25 percent of his English vocabulary. His Mandarin was even worse. His Hungarian, presumably, was excellent.

He sat in the front seat.

From there, our newly formed League of Nations spent 20 minutes driving up and down mostly empty streets, which were empty, we discovered, because they were closed. One particularly distressing moment came when we went down a one-way correctly, found it blocked, and had to retrace it against the flow. Luckily, there was no flow.

En route, our Hungarian pal repeatedly tried to direct the driver with hand gestures and onomatopoeiac (SP?) utterances; when he wanted the driver to speed up and pass, for instance, he would slice his hand forward through the air and say, "Neee-youm!"

Or, maybe that was Mandarin.

Meanwhile, in the back seat, distinguished Inquirer Phil Sheridan, or DIPS, and I were entertained by a LCD TV in the headrest on the back of Captain Hungary's seat (DIPS' nickname. DIPS is smart, and funny). Nice touch, that screen, but all in Chinese, and a little tinny, and we were stressed and headachy. DIPS saw a volume control and punched it.

It got louder. A lot louder.

So.

We figured out how to mute it, the driver found the highway, sped us back to the Media Village, and dropped us off -- that is, me and DIPS, who tipped generously. Captain Hungary , however, refused to exit the cab for a few minutes, gesticulating at a map. We scurried away as the soldiers approached the car. Last we saw, he 3 uniformed military types, 2 interpreters and 1 traffic cop hovering.

A couple of hours later DIPS and I went to dinner, where we watched much of the Ceremonies. As you might expect, the Chinese food here is quite good; the dumplings last night went down like French Fries, the Yanjing draft cold and fresh.

When Yao Ming carried the Chinese flag down the track it was like being in a Brazilain bar during the World Cup. Or maybe Chickie's and Pete's during the NFL playoffs.

We had faded by the time former gymnastics star Li Ning shot upward, torch held aloft, ran around the roof of the stadium and lit the cauldron; still, our Aussie drinking buddies in the Media Village watching with us gasped. Hard to impress an Aussie.

A passing squadron of soldiers even broke with eyes-front for a second, stealing a glance at the moment their country joined the rest of the world.

Now, about that oppression ...