There is no sugarcoating the reality that international softball faces an uncertain future as long as it remains lost in the Olympic wilderness, a game in need of an audience suffering without a place on the biggest sports stage.

But for now, for at least one day on the edge of real wilderness in Canada's Yukon Territory, softball tried to show the London Olympics that those Games will miss softball more than it misses the pomp and circumstance. If you want athletes competing for nothing more than pride in a flag and passion for a sport, well, that's all the ISF World Championship had to offer, as softball's remaining major international event tried to fill the Olympic vacuum.

Good luck finding a better rivalry in London than that between Japan and the United States in softball.

Good luck producing more memorable efforts with gold up for grabs than those in Sunday's championship game.

Good luck crowning a better champion than Japan, which beat the United States 2-1 in 10 innings in a gold-medal thriller that broke a streak of seven consecutive titles for the Americans. The win earned Japan its second world title, but its first since 1970 and the first won away from home. Add it to the Olympic gold Japan won by stunning the United States in 2008 and the nation has captured two of the past three major international titles.