The St. Louis Cardinals didn't have any players representing either Venezuela or Team USA in the championship game of the World Baseball Classic on Monday.

However, a former Cardinals hitter and World Series champion had a chance to earn a gold medal with Team USA at loanDepot Park in Miami.

Matt Holliday, who played with St. Louis for eight seasons from 2009-16 and helped lead the team to a World Series championship in '11, was the hitting coach for Team USA in the '26 iteration of the WBC.

Holliday and Team USA were unable to bring a gold medal back stateside and fell 3-2 in the championship game to Venezuela. Both of Team USA's runs came via a two-run home run hit by Bryce Harper in the bottom of the eighth.

This WBC was Holliday's first opportunity to coach in international competition for Team USA. He was able to coach his son, Ethan Holliday, in an exhibition game between Team USA and the Colorado Rockies earlier this month.

Despite this being the first opportunity to coach for Matt Holliday, he's familiar with competing in the red, white and blue as a player.

Holliday played for Team USA three separate times in his career: on the 1997 18U national team, on the Professional National Team in 2003 and the inaugural World Baseball Classic in 2006.

Holliday and Team USA were unable to win the gold medal in '06, as well.

In addition to his international accomplishments, Holliday also carved out a solid career for himself in the major leagues. He played 15 seasons for Colorado, the Oakland Athletics, St. Louis, New York Yankees and Rockies again from '04-18. 

In addition to his aforementioned World Series championship, Holliday was a seven-time All-Star ('06-08, '10-12, '15), won the National League Championship Series in '07, won four Silver Sluggers ('06-08, '10), let the National League in batting average ('07) and RBIs once ('07). He was inducted into the Cardinals Hall of Fame in '22.

Team USA is still chasing a gold medal in the WBC.

Despite boasting the most MLB representation throughout the history of the tournament, Team USA has won one gold medal ('17) in the six iterations of the international tournament. They finished in second the last two tournaments and finished in fourth place once in '09.

Holliday's coaching experience extends to the collegiate and major league levels and it wouldn't be a shock to see Team USA request him to fill the same roll again in the 2029 WBC.

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