Every so often, Alex Morgan will open her computer and pull up the video of her game-winning goal against Canada in the semifinals of the 2012 London Olympics. The moment is engraved in her mind: Heather O'Reilly's cross, her own header and the frenzied call from commentator Arlo White:

Alex Morgan has done it. Barely 30 seconds to go. It's 4-3 to the United States.

The goal came one year after Morgan had first started to gain prominence as a 21-year-old late-game substitute with a knack for scoring at the 2011 FIFA Women's World Cup. But the game-winner at the Olympics -- which propelled the USA to the 2012 Olympic final and the eventual gold medal -- was a defining moment for Morgan in her ascendance to stardom.

Since the World Cup and Olympics, Morgan has become known as much for her off-field celebrity as for her on-field performances. She's been featured in McDonald's and ChapStick commercials, posed for Coca-Cola advertisements and twice modeled for the Sports Illustrated Swimsuit Edition. She has 1.67 million Twitter followers and counting, and a typical day includes at least one interview, event or photo shoot.

But she finds little joy reveling in her off-field success.

It's the on-field moments that Morgan enjoys looking back on, especially this year as she strives to once again be the difference maker for the U.S. Women's National Team at the 2015 FIFA Women's World Cup in Canada.

"I don't want to focus on the things I do off the field because there wouldn't be a reason for that unless I performed on the field," Morgan said. "I want to show people that the product that I put on the field is good, is great."

This summer, Morgan's role will be vastly different than it was in 2011 and 2012. She is now at the center of the USA's success and the expectations couldn't be higher. When the U.S. arrives in Canada, all eyes will be on Morgan.

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Alex Morgan is carried by USA teammate Lauren Cheney in celebration after she scored their side's 3rd goal during the semifinal match between France and the United States at the 2011 Women's Soccer World Cup. (AP Photo/Martin Meissner)

When Morgan replaced Amy Rodriguez in the 56th minute of the USA's semifinal match against France at the 2011 FIFA Women's World Cup in Germany, she was still a relative newcomer to the U.S. Women's National Team and an unknown to fans across the United States.

The 21-year-old, who had graduated from the University of California, Berkeley just seven months prior, had been the youngest player to earn a spot on U.S. coach Pia Sundhage's World Cup roster.

But Morgan's ascendance to the senior national team had begun three years earlier when she was called into camp with the U-20 U.S. Women's National Team. Tony DiCicco, the U.S. U-20 coach at the time, felt that Morgan showed well in her first camp, but told her that she needed to score more goals to make it with the team.

"Alex came back into camp and started scoring goals," DiCicco said. "She hasn't stopped yet."

Morgan went on to represent the U.S. at the 2008 FIFA U-20 Women's World Cup in Chile, earning the Bronze Shoe as the tournament's third-highest scorer and the Silver Ball as the tournament's second-best player.

"She's athletic, active and she wants the responsibility of scoring goals, of disrupting defenses," DiCicco said. "She's a genius in front of goal."

Two years after the U-20 World Cup, Morgan earned her first cap with the senior national team, coming on as a substitute during a memorable snowy match against Mexico in March 2010.

When she was named to the USA's World Cup roster just over a year later, the expectations weren't particularly high. She knew she wasn't going to start at the World Cup, so instead she made it a priority to prove that she could provide a spark off the bench as she pushed for more and more minutes.

"My confidence on the field has always stayed pretty consistent," Morgan said. "So, going into the 2011 World Cup, I was taking it day by day and just hoping to get maybe five minutes, now maybe 15, maybe 30, maybe being the first sub off the bench."

Less than 30 minutes after she entered the match for Rodriguez in the semifinal game against France, Morgan sprinted behind the defense and chipped a ball over goalkeeper Berangere Sapowicz and into the net to help the USA earn a 3-1 victory and a berth to the World Cup final.

Four days later, Morgan once again came on as a substitute in the final against Japan and netted the first goal for the U.S. Ultimately, the Americans couldn't bring home the World Cup title, as Japan eventually won on penalty kicks.

But by that time, fans across the U.S. were already buzzing about the charismatic and exuberant 21-year-old striker with a pink headband and a deft goal scoring touch.

"Her role was to be a super sub coming off the bench and ignite the team and score goals," current U.S. Women's National Team coach Jill Ellis said. "She did that brilliantly. Part of doing that so well has led to her role as a starter on this team, a mainstay on this team and a very significant part of this team's success."

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Alex Morgan had a big year for the U.S. in 2012, including a hat trick against Ireland at what was then Jeld-Wen Field on Nov. 28, 2012. Thomas Boyd/The Oregonian

By the time Morgan arrived back in the United States from the 2011 World Cup, her life had already changed dramatically.

Despite the United States' loss in the final, fans embraced the returning team. Morgan's club team, the Western New York Flash, set a Women's Professional Soccer League attendance record in the weeks following the World Cup, drawing a record crowd of 15,404 to a regular season game.

It was irrelevant that Morgan hadn't been a starter at the World Cup. Corporate brands and organizations were already clamoring for the attractive and talented forward's services, and she found herself being overwhelmed by invitations to events and appearances.

"That was the one time that I was like, 'Wow, a lot of things are getting thrown at me and I just don't know when to say yes or no,' " Morgan said. "That was the only time that I had to learn just by going through it because I didn't have the experience."

DiCicco, who was coaching the Boston Breakers at the time, went up to talk to Morgan after a game between Boston and Western New York. He congratulated her on a terrific World Cup, but told her not to let the performance go to her head. She promised she wouldn't.

"The great thing with Alex is I knew she would be great off the field as well," DiCicco said. "She has remained serious about her soccer and become a great spokesman off the field and an excellent role model."

The attention only snowballed over the next year.

Morgan earned her way into the starting 11 at the beginning of 2012 and recorded her first hat trick soon after at the Algarve Cup. She opened the 2012 Summer Olympics by scoring both the equalizer and the game-winning goal in the USA's stirring victory over France.

Then on Aug. 6, she netted her most stunning international goal to date when she headed home the game-winner in the 123rd minute to give the U.S. a 4-3 victory over Canada.

Morgan finished 2012 with 28 goals and 21 assists, was named U.S. Soccer's 2012 Female Player of the Year and was a finalist for the FIFA Player of the Year award.

"I think that there are players on our team that are game-winners, who you really trust when the going gets tough," U.S. Women's National Team striker Sydney Leroux said. "I think that she's one of those players."

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Since the 2012 Olympics, Morgan has not only grown into a mainstay in the national team lineup, but has become the most visible face of U.S. women's soccer. She has been compared on numerous occasions to Mia Hamm, the face of women's soccer during the iconic 1999 Women's World Cup.

Off the field, she appears in commercials and advertisements for U.S. Soccer, has earned a slew of lucrative sponsorship deals, has become a New York Times best-selling author for her children's book series "The Kicks," and is constantly making appearances, attending events or fielding questions from the media.

While it's a role that Morgan has willingly embraced -- she now finds herself feeling bored on days when her schedule isn't packed -- her off-field commitments will always rank as secondary to her training.

"I feel like I've had a good amount of time to prepare and to realize what I'm getting myself into," Morgan said. "There's a lot of things involved, but a good rule that I always go by is that as long as it's not affecting my play on the field, then it's fine. Once it starts affecting my play, whether that's physically or mentally, then I shut it down."

While Morgan admits that posing for magazine covers or attending events can be fun, her sincere aspiration is that by being out in the public eye, she can get more and more fans interested in women's soccer.

"Alex is our ambassador," said midfielder Tobin Heath, who also plays alongside Morgan in the NWSL with the Portland Thorns. "She has kind of led the way for us since the last World Cup in propelling women's soccer. She's been a great role model, she's been a great teammate and she's super professional. She's not only getting it done off the field, where she's a rock star, but she's killing it on the field, too."

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Alex Morgan is pictured before an international friendly soccer match against Mexico at RFK Stadium Tuesday, Sept. 3, 2013, in Washington. (AP Photo/Alex Brandon)

With fame has also come increased scrutiny and heightened expectations.

As her Twitter following ballooned to over a million, Morgan quickly learned that she has to be careful about what she shares online. Morgan, who prefers to be a private person when it comes to her family, has opened up a bit through social media about her personal life and recent marriage, but has also drawn a line for herself when it comes to what she won't share online.

"Social media has come a long way," Morgan said. "With the good has come some bad and you always have a lot of people hiding behind their computers and being very critical of what you do on and off the field, of what you tweet, of what you say, of everything you do."

Morgan has had to deal with intense scrutiny from fans and the media over the last two years as she's dealt with a series of lingering injuries.

Her most prolonged setback came in October 2013, when she injured her left ankle while competing for the national team. The injury was initially misdiagnosed, and Morgan continued to play on the ankle, which caused her to sustain a stress reaction in her talus bone. It took her seven frustrating months before she could return to the field.

The 25-year-old once again injured the same ankle during the World Cup qualifiers last October and didn't return to the field for the U.S. until February.

"I think that having lengthy injuries is tough in itself, but having someone kick you while you're down is even tougher," Morgan said. "I think that was a part that I had to deal with after the Olympics and getting more attention and then being injured and having to deal with people saying that, 'I'm getting attention based off my looks rather than what I do on the field.' That was probably the hardest thing about being injured. I want nothing more than to be on the field and help my team succeed."

Despite the challenges of overcoming injury and dealing with sometimes-harsh scrutiny, Morgan has remained mentally tough through the adversity as she's pushed herself to return to the field as an even better player before the start of the 2015 FIFA Women's World Cup in Canada in June.

"It's been a tough journey for her, but she's been resilient and determined to get herself back mentally and physically to where she needs to be to help her team win," Ellis said. "It's part of her psychological makeup. ... She's always pushing herself and she doesn't let anything sidetrack her. She's one of the most competitive people I've met."

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In December, the U.S. Women's National Team lost its No. 1 spot in the FIFA world rankings for the first time since March 2008. They currently sit behind Germany in the No. 2 spot.

The team closed out 2014 with a disappointing second-place finish to Brazil in the International Tournament of Brasilia. And in early February, they lost 2-0 in a friendly to France with a less than reassuring performance.

Over the past few months, Morgan and the rest of her national team teammates have had numerous meetings as they've looked to address their setbacks and struggles head on. The group grew more cohesive in March as the majority of their top lineup returned from injuries and suspensions to win the Algarve Cup. The players believe they are now poised to peak during this summer's World Cup.

The painful memories of watching helplessly as the 2011 FIFA Women's World Cup slipped away on penalty kicks is still at the forefront of players' minds. The team is keenly aware that the U.S. has not brought home a World Cup title since Brandi Chastain famously ripped off her jersey after converting the winning penalty kick to lead the U.S. to victory over China in 1999.

"I do think having a little bit of a rocky road from December through the couple months after that was good for us," Morgan said. "I think not only that, but having dropped in the world ranking from No. 1 to No. 2, I think lights a fire under us to want to perform like the No. 1 team that we should be."

Morgan's role within the national team has transformed enormously since the last World Cup. She has taken on responsibility as a team leader and she recognizes that her teammates will be relying on her to once again provide the goal scoring punch this summer.

"Last World Cup, she wasn't expected to lead the country," said Paul Riley, Morgan's club coach with the Portland Thorns. "It was Abby Wambach's team and now it's Alex's team. She's carrying the whole country on her shoulders. I don't think that's easy for any (25-year-old)."

This time around, while the expectations from her teammates and the fans are immeasurably higher, Morgan might be the one exerting the greatest pressure on herself to once again prove something on the international stage both for herself and for her country.

"We are very conscious of the fact that it's been 16 years since the last World Cup that we brought home and that four years ago we almost had that in our hands," Morgan said. "We need to go out there and know that this is the year... We have to play our best every game."

Despite her national celebrity, it's all about soccer for Morgan at this critical juncture for women's soccer in the U.S. As the nation turns its eyes to Canada this summer, she will be at the forefront representing the stars and stripes.

She wouldn't have it any other way.

-- Jamie Goldberg | jgoldberg@oregonian.com

503-853-3761 | @jamiebgoldberg