Sophia Smith is Worth Her Weight in Gold, Delivers America to Olympics Final

LYON, France – In a brutish game between two of the world’s best football teams, the United States trumped Germany 1-0 to win their semifinal contest and move one game closer to becoming Olympic gold medalists. The Lady Yanks will face off with Brazil on Saturday, August 10th in Paris. 

Brazil overwhelmed 2023 World Cup champion Spain, 4-2, in their semifinal game. 

The heavy-legged U.S. advanced on Colorado’s Sophia Smith’s 95th minute burst and heroic goal in an anxiety provoking, back-and-forth game. Smith was perfectly fed the ball by fellow Coloradan and one-time Real Colorado teammate, Mallory Swanson. She then out-maneuvered Germany’s last remaining rearguard and let fly a made-for-a-highlight-reel shot on goal. Her score was all the Americans need to defeat Germany. 

An exhausted Sophia Smith spoke with NBC’s on-field analyst after the game and said, “I just saw an open net in front of me and knew I had to step up in the big moment. I felt I had to do that for this team, we’ve been working so hard.”

She added, “We had a hard year last year, things didn’t go how we wanted it to at all. We knew we were better than that, we have so much potential.”

Smith’s goal was her third in the prestigious international tournament. Coincidentally, all of these have come against Germany. Smith is now tied with Swanson and Trinity Rodman for the team lead in scoring at this Olympics with three goals.

The 23-year-old Smith has now been directly involved in a goal in five of the USA’s five matches at the 2024 Olympics and leads the team with 12 goal involvements in 2024. She leads the USA with eight goals this year and is tied for the team lead with four assists.

Smith will turn 24 on August 10. The date will also afford Swanson to earn her 100th cap while wearing red, white, and blue.

The game was far from a mirror image of the group stage match between the two long-time opponents. In that match, the U.S. dominated Germany from the get-go and went on to win 4-1.

In today’s game, both teams held one another in check throughout regulation time. They appeared to be tired and at times, played disjointed soccer, as player rest and recovery between their quarterfinal games was abridged. Most of the players played beyond full-time in their quarterfinals; plus the teams had to transit some 465 km from Paris to Lyon. Their lethargy was evident.

Head coach Emma Hayes called out the stellar defensive play of center-back Naomi Girma and keeper Alyssa Naeher.  Naeher made a remarkable goal stop late in extra time that broken Germany’s back.

Throughout this tournament Girma has been a pillar of strength in the back line. “Look, she’s the best defender I’ve ever seen,” Hayes said. “I’ve never seen a player as good as her at the back. She’s got everything, poise, composure, she can defend, she anticipates, she leads. She’s unbelievable!”

Team USA last played for gold medals at the 2012 Olympics in London. They reached the Olympic final in the first five women’s tournaments- 1996, 2000, 2004, 2008, and 2012, winning four times, all but in the 2000 Games.

After experiencing disappointment at both Rio 2016 and Tokyo 2020 and an embarrassing uearly exit from last year’s World Cup, the U.S. women will play for respect, pride, and gold for the first time in 12 years. 

“I think this team is firmly focused on creating a new history together,”  Hayes said at the close of her press conference.

Photo Credit: John Babiak

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