Alex Morgan arrives just in time for U.S.

Mark J. Rebilas, USA TODAY Sports

U.S. forward Alex Morgan, center, celebrates in the crowd Monday after scoring the winning goal in a semifinal vs. Canada.Mark J. Rebilas, USA TODAY Sports

U.S. forward Alex Morgan, center, celebrates in the crowd Monday after scoring the winning goal in a semifinal vs. Canada.

MANCHESTER, England – Abby Wambach rose for a ball that's been hers for almost a decade: the kill shot late in a critical game. But the player they call "Baby Horse" got there faster.

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Alex Morgan, 23, stood above Canadian defenders and even the 5-10 Wambach, heading in a goal in the 123rd minute of the Olympic semifinal to send the Americans to the gold-medal game against Japan on Thursday at famed Wembley.

"Abby is the one our team looks for, but I was in the right place at the right time," Morgan told USA TODAY Sports on Tuesday, describing an emotional and restless 12 hours since the 4-3 victory.

PHOTOS: Alex Morgan in pictures

Morgan's time has arrived with the U.S. women's soccer team, which has a chance to win its fourth gold in five Olympic tournaments.

By ending a scoreless streak of 392 minutes in the Olympic tournament Monday, she became the youngest player to score 20 goals in a year for the national team.

"I told her in the dog pile, 'I love you,' " said Wambach, who is the team's resident expert on headers. "I think I'm in love with you in this moment because you basically sent us to the gold medal game."

Before Monday's classic, it was speed that set Morgan apart on the Olympic stage. While Wambach has added to her career goal tally (143), second in international history, with headers, Morgan has chopped up defenses with her quickness and agility.

• PHOTOS: Images from the USA's thrilling 4-3 win

Speed has been something she could always count on, going back to her first club soccer tryout at 13.

"She just blew by all my club players," says Dave Sabet, Morgan's youth coach in Cypress, Calif., recalling the first time he saw her sprint. "But the thing about her was, she didn't have any sort of idea. No skill. She just had phenomenal speed."

That was just the beginning. She added the dribble, developed an elite left foot, and now she's started heading home goals. Morgan's so fast she has drawn comparisons to a Ferrari from Canadian coach John Herdman.

Not bad for a young player who was coming off the bench for coach Pia Sundhage this time last year.

Says her mom, Pam Morgan, "She took every opportunity given to her and maximized it."

Overcoming injury

If you watch Alex Morgan today, shaking international team defenders out of their cleats and outsprinting opponents, it's hard to believe she has had multiple knee injuries, including an ACL tear that required surgery as a high school senior.

It is the kind of injury that be-falls many female athletes, and it is one Sabet has seen before, with negative results.

"When she got hurt, we all wondered how she was going to come back," Sabet says. "Was she going to be fearless, or was she going to come back like a lot of players: discouraged, gain 20 pounds and sit back and cry about it?"

Morgan did the opposite. Entering her first year at Cal-Berkeley, she rehabilitated in five months and returned with a renewed dedication to the sport.

"It was a turning point in my life," she says. "I struggled emotionally the most. I depended on soccer so much.

"It was tough doing the same exercises, not being able to run, forgetting how to run when I was first on the treadmill."

Her mother says the injury gave the teenager perspective.

"It gave her six months to understand what was taken from her and what she had to do to get it back," Pam Morgan says.

But Morgan had long been accustomed to hard work on the pitch. When her parents realized how fast she was at 11, they hired a speed coach to help with her technique. Her father, Mike, now a semi-retired owner of a small construction company, coached her youth teams until she outgrew his level of expertise. Even then, he would be the goaltender in their one-on-one sessions. They worked on finishing plays when she was 10.

"My dad was huge for me," says Morgan, whose parents and two sisters are cheering her on at the Games. "He was the only dad sitting at every practice and he still has not missed a national team game."

Breaking in slowly

Morgan didn't immediately take the reins of the national team as she had at Cal, where she led the team in goals as a freshman.

When she was called up to the senior national team in 2010, she looked around at some of the game's great players: Wambach, Hope Solo, Christie Rampone. And she decided she could outrun the field.

Says teammate Lauren Cheney, "She's the first player I've ever seen do this: She just ran at people right away, and everyone is just kind of like, 'Who is this girl?' "

Morgan has received ribbing for the way she kicked the doors down in her first week.

"I wasn't the most technical player," Morgan says. "But I was fast, and if I push the ball past a player I can get there. Everyone always made fun of me in a good way for that."

Sundhage used her as a reserve, bringing her on late in games when the team needed a spark. Sundhage said Morgan wasn't ready to play 90 minutes yet.

Morgan handled it with humility, praising her veteran teammates while longing privately to see the field on a permanent basis.

Cal coach Neil McGuire says Morgan is a confident person and isn't one to back down. "She wants to be first, and she works very, very hard to make that happen," he said.

Morgan followed Sundhage's instructions meticulously, improving her off-ball movement and conditioning. And in the World Cup, she dazzled the international scene with several late goals in the semifinal and final, earning a starting spot in the lineup this year.

Now Morgan's a key player in the USA's bid for Olympic gold, and on Monday, she flashed a new wrinkle in her game with the critical header.

"She's finishing in really sophisticated ways," former U.S. midfielder Julie Foudy says. "Any great finisher would tell you that that sometimes takes years to develop."

Adds Mia Hamm, the USA's all-time leading goal scorer: "When I watch her play, I'm amazed at her strength on the ball. …She has managed in a very short amount of time to deal with that."

Teammates foresee a bright future for Morgan, whose boyfriend is fellow Cal alum Servando Carrasco of the Seattle Sounders.

As Cheney puts it, "Alex is going to be one of the best players in the world for a long time."

Sundhage says it's hard to tell when or if young players will plateau. "It depends on what Alex wants," she says.

If Morgan's history is any indication, it's a downhill race.