Hottest Sports Headlines That Made It a Wild Wednesday in Chicago

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Chicagoans, you can mark June 23, 2010, as one of the hottest days this summer for a Chicago sports fan.

Wednesday was filled with epic sports news throughout the nation and city. First, USA sparks World Cup news after a late goal to defeat Algeria.

Later on, sad news strikes Blackhawks fans as they are forced to say bye bye to Big Buff.

Here, we'll take a look at the Chicago teams and other sporting news that made the biggest splash on Wednesday.

USA USA USA!

Thank you U.S. soccer team for giving us a great start to our Wednesday morning.

I'm a sucker for dramatic endings in sports, and Landon Donovan's winning goal still has me shaking with excitement as I write this.

The U.S. missed wide open opportunities to score, but at the same time, dodged some close goals as well.

The thrill started building from Clint Dempsey's shot off the post, to Tim Howard's perfect positioning to stop a header by Rafik Saifi in the 90th-plus minute.

Just moments after Howard's save, Donovan scores off a rebound, and then America erupts with noise.

Twitter and Facebook flood with comments, and I'm sure that's just a small portion of the World Cup fever spreading.

The biggest World Cup fan I know said the bar he was at went crazy (that's not unusual).

My brother-in-law was at an airport for a business trip, and he said people were crowded around the TVs. When the U.S. scored, he said everyone went crazy.

I'm sure you have a World Cup story of your own.

Mark Wednesday as the day people stopped calling soccer boring.

Mark Wednesday as the day when the U.S. advanced to the next round and topped their group for the first time since 1930.

Marathon at Wimbledon

After being suspended Tuesday and Wednesday for darkness, the longest tennis match in history finally came to an end at 11 hours and five minutes on Thursday.

Final score: John Isner, 6-4, 3-6, 6-7 (7), 7-6 (3), 70-68, over Nicolas Mahut. And this was just the first round. Isner might need more time to recover for his next match.

The fifth set alone lasted about eight hours, with the score stuck at 59-59.

Match point, deuce, match point, deuce...neither one was giving in.

I'd have to credit Mahut for adding the drama. The underdog Frenchman showed his every emotion and effort. Even after seven hours of play, he still had the energy to dive for a shot that had no chance of making it over the net.

Wimbledon stole the World Cup's spotlight for the moment on Wednesday.

Bye Bye Byfuglien

Blackhawks fans knew this was coming; they just didn't know when it would be announced.

Wednesday night, the Blackhawks officially traded fan-favorite winger Dustin Byfuglien, along with Ben Eager, Brent Sopel, and Akim Aliu to the Atlanta Thrashers for the 24th and 54th overall picks, center Marty Reasoner, prospect Jeremy Morin, and minor leaguer Joey Crabb.

Long-term contracts from Jonathan Toews, Duncan Keith, and Patrick Kane put the Hawks in desperate need to free up cap space.

The trade trims the payroll and gives the Hawks the chance to grab more prospects and prep for the NHL Draft.

Big Buff is just the first domino to fall.

Bulls New Coach, Again

Tom Thibodeau was formally introduced as the Bulls' new head coach on Wednesday.

He is the Bulls' 18th head coach.

He is fresh off a NBA Finals appearance as assistant head coach of the Celtics, and has experience coaching champions, or coaching at championships (as opposed to previous head coach Vinny Del Negro).

This defensive-minded man is said to fit well with the Bulls' young, active roster, but what the Bulls need more is an offensive push.

That's OK, right? Thibodeau is represented by the same agent as LeBron James, so there's something going on under the table there.

A Chicago Baseball Team Is Over .500!

Too bad the Cubs vs. Mariners game wasn't at Wrigley on Wednesday.

Severe thunderstorms pounded Chicago, which could've canceled the game. It also could have saved the Cubs from falling a season-high nine games under .500.

But an absent Cubs offense that resulted in an 8-1 loss is not news for Chicago.

What is news is that a Chicago baseball team is actually doing well.

The White Sox have all of a sudden transformed into AL Central contenders as they are 3.5 games behind the Minnesota Twins.

The White Sox extended their winning streak to eight on Wednesday with a 4-2 win over the Braves.