Sophia Smith scores go-ahead goal on her birthday for Team USA in semi-final versus Germany
Team USA is a step away from the finals in Paris thanks to star forward Sophia Smith. On her birthday, Smith scored the go-ahead goal for the women’s national soccer team just as they began the first extra time period after the end of regulation against Germany.
The former Stanford standout found herself onsides as her teammate Mallory Swanson slotted in a perfect ball through the center in front of the goal. She struck across the face of the goal for the first of the match.
The semi-final matchup against Germany is Smith’s 55th cap for Team USA and her ninth consecutive start. If the USA can hold on through extra time, they’ll advance to the final against the winner of the semi-final between Brazil and Spain.
In the Tokyo Olympics, Team USA fell in the semi-final against Canada. They went on to win a bronze medal with a 4-3 win over Australia.
Team USA leads medal count in Paris Olympics
The 2024 Paris Olympics medal count was updated near the end of Monday with quite the battle for most gold this summer.
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The United States maintained its large lead in the total medal count, leading second place China by 24 medals. However, the latter has the lead in gold medals by a slim margin.
The race for gold could be a two-country race but others are making a run after Day 10.
Here’s a look at the top 10 in the medal count through Monday.
1. United States: 20 gold, 29 silver, 28 bronze (77)
2. People’s Republic of China: 21 gold, 18 silver, 14 bronze (53)
3. France: 12 gold, 15 silver, 18 bronze (45)
4. Great Britain: 12 gold, 13 silver, 17 bronze (42)
5. Australia: 13 gold, 11 silver, 8 bronze (32)
T6: Republic of Korea: 11 gold, 8 silver, 7 bronze (26)
T6. Japan: 10 gold, 5 silver, 11 bronze (26)
T6. Italy: 9 gold, 10 silver, 7 bronze (26)
9. Canada: 5 gold, 4 silver, 8 bronze (17)
10. Netherlands: 6 gold, 6 silver, 4 bronze (16)
Most recently, the United States added a bronze medal to the count with a win in the third place game in women’s 3×3 basketball.
Dearica Hamby, Cierra Burdick, Hailey Van Lith and Rhyne Howard defeated Canada 16-13 to earn the hardware. The win came after the United States fell to Spain in overtime in the semifinals earlier in the day.
Winning the bronze medal marked quite the turnaround for Team USA, which lost its first three games of pool play at the Olympics.
On3’s Nick Kosko contributed to this report.