After a succession of devastating, unpredictable defeats dating to 1999, wasn't Mickelson due for something wholly unforeseen that left him smiling instead of stunned?
That makes it capable of evolving in unpredictable ways, despite the devastating defeat it suffered in Egypt last year.
And this is perhaps the film's most valuable lesson: that history keeps moving, often in treacherous and unpredictable ways, turning victory into defeat and vindication into catastrophe.
Switzerland, in its 1-0 defeat of Spain, proved unpredictable for the first time in history.
This was shown in the medial prefrontal cortex of rats subjected to 5 weeks of social defeat, or to chronic unpredictable stress or after chronic corticosterone administration [ 7, 39].
Patterns are harder to discern at Villa, but a predictably unpredictable team have now suffered three straight defeats.
"The myths," Lefkowitz writes, "show a world full of evil forces, unpredictable change, difficult conditions, and inevitable death and defeat".
Perhaps the best news of the day was the defeat of David Nalbandian, the talented but unpredictable Argentine who lost in straight sets to Serbia's Victor Troicki.
Recent reports have also highlighted the possibility of paternal transmission of stress-induced conditions, such as social defeat [ 93] and chronic and unpredictable postnatal maternal separation [ 94].
Maria Sharapova reflected on the unpredictable nature of the women's game after her straight-sets defeat by Sabine Lisicki.
