IRAKLION, Greece - Julie Foudy left the game with a limp, and then the stadium on crutches, her spunky attitude nearly as big as the bandage wrapped around her sprained right ankle.

"I think I'll just have them chop it off and I'll drag my stump out there if I have to," the captain of the U.S. women's soccer team said.

Nice try, but unless the ankle heals in a hurry, the Fab Five will be without a key member Thursday when they play for the gold medal.

Foudy's injury was one of several head-smacking developments late in a game that had been going the Americans' way. After giving up a last-gasp goal and blowing an easy scoring chance in overtime, the U.S. team finally beat World Cup champion Germany 2-1 Monday night on Heather O'Reilly's goal nine minutes into the extra period.

The win gives the Fab Five - long-standing stars Mia Hamm, Joy Fawcett, Brandi Chastain, Kristine Lilly and Foudy - a chance to go out as champions in their final tournament together.

"The whole year it's kind of been our focus," said O'Reilly, the youngest player on the roster. "What these women have done for the last 10 years has been remarkable, and this is it for some of them. As young players, we wouldn't be happy putting them out with anything but a gold."

The Americans face an interesting rematch with Brazil, a 1-0 winner over Sweden, for the Olympic title Thursday in Athens. Brazil's coach accused the U.S. team of deliberately trying to hurt his players in a 2-0 loss last week in the first round.

Germany will play Sweden in the bronze medal game.

Even though the young players on the U.S. team had spoken of their mission to send the veterans out on top, the vets themselves and coach April Heinrichs had downplayed the topic because they felt it put unnecessary pressure on the team as a whole.

Then, in an unexpected twist, Heinrichs raised the matter in her locker-room speech before kickoff against Germany. Her voice cracked with emotion as she repeated her words following the game.

"It's fitting for these players to go out on top," Heinrichs said. "We owe it to them."

Hamm, for one, was caught offguard. She had genuinely tried to stay focused on each game as it came, without thinking of how close she was to the end of her career.

"I had an emotional reaction," Hamm said. "Because you don't want it to be your last game. You're kind of putting it out of your mind, and then someone just puts it front and center."

The speech sure didn't hurt. The Americans dominated most of the game and were unlucky they didn't win it in regulation. The Germans' tying goal came on a shot from Isabell Bachor that deflected off Fawcett's hip two minutes into second-half injury time.

O'Reilly then had an open net in front of her early in overtime, but she rushed her shot and hit the post. A few minutes later, she scored the game-winner, a 6-yard right-footed shot with an assist from Hamm.

It was an appropriate pass from old to young, from a 32-year-old retiring superstar to a 19-year-old college student who was screaming Hamm's name as a fan just a few years ago.

"Her love for this game, and her love for this team, inspires us old bags a lot," Hamm said.

Hamm created the goal by moving in from the right flank, which drew the German defense her way. She said the maneuver was a result of studying tapes of last year's 3-0 loss to Germany in the World Cup semifinals, a sour defeat that had lingered on the Americans' minds all year. Germany went on to win the Cup and entered the Olympics ranked No. 1 in the world, a place the United States had held for so long.

Asked the difference between this game and the one 11 months ago, German coach Tina Theune-Meyer said: "This time, they had seven, eight months to prepare for this very event."

Lilly scored her 98th career goal in the 33rd minute - her third goal in as many games - and the U.S. defense didn't allow a shot on goal until the 77th minute. Birgit Prinz, the reigning world player of the year, was essentially neutralized for much of the game.

Afterward, exhausted from 120 minutes of soccer, the Americans started to regroup. One more victory is needed to complete the Fab Five mission.

"It's not over," forward Abby Wambach said. "These women more than anybody know that."