It’s hard to imagine this version of the U.S. Women’s National Team without Sophia Smith.
The U.S. attack has been rebuilt with legends like Abby Wambach, Megan Rapinoe and even Alex Morgan, while players like Crystal Dunn, Trinity Rodman and Smith have become 2.0 for a national team desperate to return to its historic position as number one in the world.
Smith is certainly the player who can take a team to that level, but who is she really? From her time as a player at Stanford to her immediate impact on the U.S. Soccer senior team, here are five things to know about Sophia Smith.
She led Stanford to a national championship as a sophomore.
In his breakout second year with the Cardinal, Smith helped the team reach the Final Four, scoring a hat trick in the semifinal win over UCLA in 2019. He then followed that up with a dominating performance in the finals to secure the championship and be named the tournament’s Most Valuable Player.
Sophia Smith has seven goals and two goals in two games for the U.S. Women’s National Team this year.
With each goal, it felt like the weight of the World Cup (Smith hasn’t scored since the opening game and the U.S. women’s national team has struggled) was fading a little. pic.twitter.com/B5NoNFgFpv
— Ella Brockway (@ellabrockway) July 28, 2024
She was named the best player at her first FIFA World Cup.
In the U.S.’ first game against Vietnam, Smith scored two goals and assisted a third in a 3-0 victory that earned the then-22-year-old forward his first Most Valuable Player award. Coincidentally, in just his second Olympic appearance, Smith scored two goals Sunday to lead the U.S. to a 4-1 victory over Germany.
She is the first player born in the 2000s to play for the U.S. Women’s National Soccer Team.
In a win against the Netherlands on Nov. 20, 2020, Smith earned her first “cap” in soccer terms in her first appearance with the senior national team. Just a few months after turning 20, Smith became the first player born after 2000 to make the senior roster for the U.S. Women’s National Team. Since then, Smith has made over 50 appearances for the team, scoring 22 goals.
She will get married soon
Smith got engaged to Arizona Cardinals wide receiver Michael Wilson in June. The couple met while attending Stanford University. Wilson, who is 6-foot-2 and weighs 213 pounds, was the Cardinals’ third-round pick in last year’s NFL draft. In his first season, he had 565 receiving yards, 38 catches and three touchdowns. The pair share a strong gene pool.
Speaking of gene pools…
Sophia Smith isn’t the only top-level athlete in the Smith family. Her parents Kenny and Molly Smith were college athletes.Her father was a basketball player at the University of Wyoming and her mother was a volleyball star, and she is the youngest of three sisters; her older sister, Savannah, still holds the all-time scoring record at the University of Northern Colorado.
