Sophia Smith is the present and the future of the U.S. women’s national team, and her missed penalty in Sunday’s shootout loss to Sweden doesn’t take away from that.

The 22-year-old forward’s shot sailed wide of the net, denying the USWNT of a chance to win the shootout in the fifth round. Sweden went on to win in the seventh. Yet while Smith likely will relive that moment in the coming months, she also can use it as fuel, making her even more dangerous for international and club opponents alike.

Nobody is concerned about the rising star bouncing back, including Jamaica head coach Lorne Donaldson, who coached Smith during her youth career in Colorado.

“What happened to Sophia, it’s just, she has to grow from it. I’ve coached her for a long time, and you never want to see that happen to one of your kids,” he said. “It did happen, and I’ve heard back from her. I was at the game. And I’m sure that Sophia, knowing her, she will rebound from it and she’ll be just fine. Because she’s a great human being.”

Still, the sting of the miss remains. Her U.S. teammates know that, and they comforted her after the match.

“I know she’s going to be hurting about this. But in time, she’ll realize that it’s just a game,” USWNT defender and Smith’s Portland Thorns teammate Crystal Dunn said. “I think she was ready for that moment. I’m proud of her for stepping up in that place. And I think, for her, she’s so young, she has so much more to give this game, and I think she’ll look back on this moment and just be like, you know, it was another moment in my career.”

After all, Smith stood out as one of the bright spots for the USWNT in a disappointing World Cup run. She had a brace in the team’s opener against Vietnam, and she consistently created chances when she could.

Her impact will be felt as she helps to grow the game for the next generation. At just 22 years old, she already has 14 goals through 34 international appearances. While the penalty kick is a big miss, the fate of the USWNT does not – and should not – rest on her shoulders alone.

Lindsey Horan offered words of wisdom to Smith, noting that even “some of the best players in the world miss PKs.” Horan herself recently missed one in a Champions League match against Chelsea.

“Everyone misses. It sucks. Absolutely sucks,” she said. “But you’ve got to remember this is part of football. You get back up and it’s going to hurt. It’s going to hurt for forever. … Soph will get through it. She’s strong. She’s strong willed and she’s one of the best players in the world right now at her age. She’s going to be perfectly fine.”

And even after the miss, Smith’s teammates would choose her to take another penalty.

“We’ve all seen Soph play,” Naomi Girma said. “There’s so much ahead of her. I think we saw a glimpse of it in this World Cup. You see it week in and week out in the NWSL. … This is just the beginning for her and she’s going to have a lot more big moments. And every single time, I’m going back to her to be the one to take the shot.”

Thursday night's NCAA basketball action spotlights a tense SEC rematch, as No. 2 South Carolina hosts No. 4 Texas in conference play following the pair's nonconference Players Era Championship matchup in November.

The Longhorns just edged the Gamecocks 66-64 in the Las Vegas competition's title game, but the tide has since shifted, with South Carolina now riding a 10-game winning streak into Thursday's matchup while No. 6 LSU served Texas a season-first loss last Sunday.

"I'm really disappointed in the league for putting us in that position, but we play whoever is in front of us," Longhorns head coach Vic Schaefer said of his team's grueling road trip. "It's one monster after another."

The pair's sole 2025/26 conference matchup could end up determining the SEC basketball regular-season title — South Carolina and Texas split their two 2024/25 SEC clashes to tie for last season's honor before the Gamecocks ousted the Longhorns from both the conference tournament and the Final Four.

While injuries have impacted both sides, South Carolina anticipates a roster boost from 6-foot-7 French international Alicia Tournebize, who recently joined the Gamecocks after playing pro ball in Europe.

"She looked good," South Carolina head coach Dawn Staley said of her team's midseason addition. "She'll play, she'll definitely play."

How to watch Texas vs. South Carolina on Thursday

The No. 4 Longhorns will tip off against the No. 2 Gamecocks in Columbia at 7 PM ET on Thursday, with live coverage airing on ESPN2.

The NWSL Players Association is speaking out, filing a grievance against the league's new "High Impact Player" rule on Monday after claiming that the mechanism violates both the CBA and US labor laws.

"Player compensation is a mandatory subject of bargaining," the union said in its Wednesday statement. "The League has no authority to unilaterally create a new pay structure that bypasses negotiated rules."

The union requested "immediate rescission of the HIP Rule, an order requiring the League to bargain in good faith over any proposed Player compensation rules prior to implementation, and to make-whole relief for any Players impacted by the League's unilateral actions."

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With the future of stars like Trinity Rodman hanging in the balance, the "High Impact Player" rule allows clubs to exceed the salary cap by up to $1 million so long as players qualify under specific criteria — measures that a mere 27 current NWSL athletes currently meet.

The NWSLPA instead suggested simply raising the overall salary cap by $1 million, with the NWSL going on to institute the rule despite union objections.

"We want to make sure everybody has a level playing field," NWSLPA executive director Meghann Burke told The Athletic in December. "If the league can come in here and put their thumb on the scale…they can put their thumb on the scale of any player's contract negotiation."

With free agency heating up, players making moves, and the 2026 NWSL preseason kicking off, the pressure is mounting for both sides to figure out a lasting fix.

USWNT star Sam Coffey has sealed the deal, with WSL side Manchester City announcing on Wednesday that they've signed the 27-year-old through 2029.

Manchester City reportedly paid $875,000 in transfer fees for the midfielder, after Coffey led the Portland Thorns to one NWSL title in her four years with the NWSL club.

"Sam's reputation as one of the world's best speaks for itself," said Man City director of football Therese Sjögran in the WSL club's announcement. "We're delighted she's chosen to come here ahead of other potential suitors."

"Sam is playing at the top of her game, and I think her decision to come here shows the incredible progress we've made as a Club and the ambitions we have moving forward," added Sjögran.

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City's ambitions are rising alongside their place on the WSL table, where the Citizens currently sit six points clear atop the standings thanks to global stars like Bunny Shaw and Vivianne Miedema.

Coffey's move, however, continues to tip the USWNT's scales away from the NWSL, with over half of the starting XI from the 2024 Olympic gold-medal match now playing club football in Europe — at least for now.

"For as long as I've kicked a ball, I've always dreamed of playing professional soccer in Europe," Coffey said in an emotional letter to Portland on social media. "I would never forgive myself if I didn't go try."

How to watch Manchester City this weekend

Though the date of Coffey's European debut is still unknown, Manchester City will next take the pitch against third-flight club Bournemouth in the fourth round of the 2025/26 FA Women's Cup at 8 AM ET on Sunday before facing a top-tier battle against WSL champion Chelsea in the League Cup semifinals next Wednesday.

WSL action for the Citizens will then resume on Sunday, January 25th, when Man City takes on the London City Lionesses at 6:55 AM ET on ESPN+.

The upcoming Netflix feature film about the 1999 USWNT World Cup team has landed a lead, with Deadline confirming on Wednesday that the streaming giant is tapping actor Emily Bader to play star forward Mia Hamm in The 99'ers.

The 29-year-old most recently starred in People We Meet on Vacation, which made its debut at No. 1 on Netflix last week.

Bader previously enjoyed a breakout turn in the Prime historical drama My Lady Jane, which dropped in June 2024.

Calling her role in The 99'ers "a dream come true," Bader celebrated her Netflix casting in her Instagram Stories on Wednesday.

"Growing up playing soccer and being so inspired by @miahamm," she wrote.

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Netflix first acquired the rights to The Girls of Summer: The US Women's Soccer Team and How It Changed the World — a 2000 book by Jeré Longman — back in 2020, with the project officially going into development in May 2025.

Known for her directorial prowess on Sirens on Netflix as well as her Emmy and Director's Guild Award-winning work on HBO's Watchmen, Nicole Kassell will direct The 99'ers.

Kassell will work off a script penned by Katie Lovejoy (Love at First Sight, To All the Boys I’ve Loved Before 3), Dana Stevens (The Woman King, Fatherhood), and Peter Hedges (Ben Is Back).

Helmed by Liza Chasin from 3Dot Productions, The 99'ers boasts a production team that includes Hayley Stool, Ross Greenburg, Marla Messing, Jill Mazursky, and Krista Smith.

While no timeline for production or distribution are available, Netflix will likely aim to use the film to bolster its coverage of the the upcoming World Cups in light of the streamer recently snagging the exclusive US broadcast rights to both the 2027 and 2031 tournaments.