Peter Nowak's Cajones Are Bigger Than Yours

I'm not what you would call a morning person. I'm more likely to fall asleep against the backdrop of a sunrise than wake up to one. Nonetheless, I got up at 4 this morning to watch the American U-23's opening game in the Olympic tournament.

USA 1, Japan 0. Three points to the good guys who now sit atop Group B.

This game was a big deal. Now I'm not going to claim the Olympics are a significant tournament in the scheme of global football, nor will I claim that beating Japan means the US will even get out of their group (The Netherlands and Nigeria both loom large on the horizon). This game was a big deal because Jozy Altidore watched most of it from the bench.

For those who don't know, Altidore (right) is the "next big thing" in American soccer. An 18-year-old man-child of a striker, Altidore was recently sold to Spanish giants Villareal for an estimated $10 million, the highest fee ever paid for an American player. He dates pop stars. He's on the covers of video games. In short, the kid's the future.

Yet when I got up at 4am, coach Peter Nowak had dude riding the pine. Now, the US did have legendary forward and often bloody-mess Brian McBride in the starting eleven, and McBride did what he does well - win balls in the air, earn fouls, and hold possession. By the time the old guy was subbed out for the future, the US had a lead, the Japanese looked desperate, and Peter Nowak - who hours earlier was getting flambeed for sitting Jozy - looked like a genius.

I've been thinking a lot about decision-making recently. How do all the people I know who are getting married or advancing in their careers arrive at a point where they're confident making decisions of such consequence? From whence does Peter Nowak get the cajones to tell his $10 million wunderkind that his thirty-six-year-old counterpart gets the first run-out? When Grant Wahl of Sports Illustrated calls you "ballsy,"you've made an impression. How does one become ballsy?

Are there people, like Nowak, who are just supremely confident in their decision-making abilities, even when their choices run against the proverbial grain? My sense is there are two ways of making significant decisions. The first is to trust in some kind of process. Adherents to this philosophy are evaluators and data-obsessives who think less about the results of the decision than about what the relevant information indicates is best. In this category I'd place research scientists, judges, and Peter Nowak. The second school is constantly aware of consequences and thinks beyond the decision-moment to what effects the decision will have. The process is less important than the result. In this category I'd place politicians, doctors, and LSU football coach Les Miles. Obviously, everyone uses some combination of both methods, but the extreme examples of both cases - those whose faith in their decisions is unwavering - are the ones we revere for their fortitude, their chutzpah, or their cajones.

However he arrived at the decision, Nowak already has hinted that Altidore will probably be in the first eleven when the US face the Dutch at 4am this Sunday. Set your alarms, bitches.