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The United States' Women's National Team are into women soccer's gold medal game at the 2024 Paris Olympics in France after a dramatic winner in extra time against Germany on Tuesday.
Sophia Smith made the difference in the 95th minute to gift the USA a 1-0 win over their European foes with time slowly running out before the gut-wrenching lottery of penalties would have had to settle affairs.
The decider came when the number nine, Mallory Swanson, cooly placed the onrushing Smith one-vs-one with the German goalkeeper. The 24-year-old Portland Thorns star then showed experience beyond her years to calmly slot past the shot-stopper and into the net to win the tie for the USA.
It was her fourth goal involvement of the tournament from five matches, as she calmly fired the USWNT into the final and continued her charge to realize her dream of becoming an Olympic champion.
Smith, voted NSWL MVP in and US Soccer Female Player of the Year in 2022, is a proven goalscorer with a lethal record to it's no surprise that the Colorado native didn't watse the chance she was given.
The 2023 NWSL Golden Boot winner scored 24 times in 34 college games for Stanford, and in her professional career she has 42 goals in 68 for the Thorns and 22 in 54 for the USWNT.
When is the 2024 Olympic Games' women's soccer final?
It was a poor affair, but the ladies will not care as they continue on their quest for a fifth gold medal in history since making their Olympics debut in 1996, winning titles in 1996, 2004. 2008 and 2012.
The win at the Parc Olympique Lyonnais in Lyon, located 249 miles away from the City of Love, sees them set up a clash with either Spain or Brazil in the final on Saturday, August 10 as the Americans bid to end their 12-year gold drought.