Late last year, U.S. soccer star Alex Morgan went paddleboarding in Hawaii. Photos were taken. And while paddleboarding might be one of Morgan’s favorite pastimes, a great way to blow off steam and enjoy herself, to the rest of the world, it was an excuse to oogle her in a bikini.

ESPN the Magazine has a music-themed issue coming out. In it, they used athletes from several different sports to recreate iconic images from the music world: Josh Freeman became “Thriller”-era Michael Jackson, and Ryan Lochte became the baby from the Nevermind cover, for example. As much flack as ESPN gets, we think this is a pretty cool idea, and after the jump, we focus on one transformation in particular.

People love Alex Morgan, both for her soccer exploits and… some off-the-field reasons. So what if there was a way for Team USA to, as a promotional vehicle, play to the interest in Morgan on both fronts? Well… they found a way.

Well, that was… ridiculous, for one. Soul-crushing for Canada, for another. There are a ton of adjectives one could use, but in the wake of the U.S.’ 4-3 extra time win over Canada to clinch a spot in the Olympics’ goal medal match, we’ll just say: that was spectacular. Video of the clinching goal after the jump.

The U.S. advanced to the semifinals of the Olympic soccer tournament today, beating New Zealand 2-0. Despite the U.S. generally dominating play, though, this game wasn’t always physically easy on either side. See more after the jump.

Don’t know what to watch at the London 2012 Olympics? Well, since there are dozens of events per day and NBC complicates things with its tape-delays, things can get really confusing. Fortunately, we’re here to help, weed out the crap (*cough, equestrian*) and highlight the few events you should focus on (from a jingoistic American’s point of view, obviously). And we’ll tell you how/when you can watch them, because, again, NBC sucks.

Now that the U.S. women’s soccer team’s World Cup run is over, will the sport of women’s soccer be relegated to the back burner in the American sporting landscape? Will the team’s effort and heartbreaking finish be lost to history as the memory fades? Not if they keep scoring goals like this.

It took a while, but the wait was worth it. The United States had several near-misses in the early stages of the Women’s World Cup final against Japan (and Japan had a potential scoring opportunity taken away by an offsides call that turned out to be incorrect), but American Alex Morgan finally found the back of the net in the 69th minute for a 1-0 U.S. lead.

Despite striking first against France in the Women’s World Cup semifinals today, the United States was in trouble in the second half – the team lost its lead and was generally outplayed. But as we’ve learned, this team does not go away easily.