Azinger in tribute to Europe

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"You brought a great team over here again," Azinger told Europe captain Nick Faldo soon after the Virgin Atlantic airbus from Heathrow had touched down in Louisville.

"I've been kind of marvelling at how well all of you guys have been playing."

Later Azinger returned to the theme by calling Faldo's men "an incredible team" and when asked to comment on the decision to leave out Darren Clarke he paid another compliment.

"I'm not going to try to justify why Nick didn't pick Darren Clarke. "He just brought over 12 pretty darned good players and he had a couple more that he could have chosen.

"If it was 14 players, I'm pretty sure I know who the other two would be, but it's only 12."

Clarke and Colin Montgomerie were the two obvious omissions.

Knowing how well Europe have done as underdogs in recent years Azinger almost seems to be grabbing the chance to adopt the same position.

Asked which side goes into the match with most pressure he replied: "There's always pressure at the Ryder Cup and anybody who says there's not is either out of touch or has never been here.

"We have a great opportunity to change it. We have, I think, everything to gain in this situation - not a lot of people expect us to pull this off minus Tiger Woods. Everybody feels pressure, but hopefully they will be free-wheeling out there. That's my hope."