This was all she had trained for, all she'd ever hoped for. One moment. One chance. And there she was in the final minutes of one of the greatest women's soccer games ever, still fighting, still scrapping, still giving Team USA a chance to win with the time that was left on the clock.

There she was pushing the pace on one side to take it up down the left flank, trying to set up Abby Wambach for a dramatic-game winner. Wambach hit it wide. There she was with one fierce run down the left side to set up Heather O'Reilly, who just missed on the connection in front of goal. Again she paced herself on the left side to try and get that ball to Wambach's fierce head, but this one hit off the post. It looked as if the US women's national team had gone as far as they could possibly go with her being the set-up woman.

So Alex Morgan had to take matters into her own head.

With only seconds left before penalty kicks, Morgan got into the box in one final attempt for the United States to avoid the deadly shootout. Morgan waited for O'Reilly's pass to set her up in, got the inside position on her woman and then she took the strike and knocked it in without prejudice.

It's not a role she's unaccustomed to, but Morgan has been distributing far more in the last few games to open up better opportunities for her teammates. For all the love Morgan gets from her goals (19 to lead the team), she's now up to 11 assists on the year, which also leads the team. A year ago in the World Cup, USA head coach Pia Sundhage seemed reluctant to start Morgan until she proved she could do more than strike. Those days are long gone. It's almost a given to see Morgan's name pencilled in at forward with Wambach.

Although the United States has more skilled players like the incredible Megan Rapinoe and the still deadly Abby Wambach, it's Morgan who is the game-changer, the player who can trailblaze the path for United States women's soccer through the next decade. Her pace and her playmaking provides no easy matchup for other opponents. And now that her passing touch has caught up with the scoring touch, she has become one of the toughest players in the world to stop.

Japan won the World Cup last year, but they had nightmares against Morgan, who scored one goal on an excellent strike and set up the other goal. Now they will have to deal with a Morgan who's one year wiser, one year stronger, one year better, and Team USA is ready to take back what they believe was theirs a year ago, and prove themselves to be the world's best.

"LIVE IN THE MOMENT". Morgan's twitter proclaimed hours before the start of the match, and there she was at the end carrying the USA through. Her time. Her moment. Her team.