IRAKLION, Greece - A few hours after the U.S. women's soccer team lost to Germany in the World Cup last fall, Mia Hamm and three teammates sat in their hotel room and watched a replay of the game on cable television.

"There wasn't a lot of talking going on," Hamm said. "It was solemn."

The self-inflicted punishment was Step One of what became an 11-month mission to right the wrong, to get revenge on the new team at the top of the women's soccer world.

The chance for payback has arrived. The United States and Germany, the last two World Cup champions, meet Monday in the semifinals of the Olympic tournament.

"We've talked about having another chance at Germany for a year - and putting ourselves in that position to have another chance," captain Julie Foudy said. "We didn't talk about it when we got here because we wanted to stay in the present.

"But, now, the Germany game is the present."

Germany beat the Americans 3-0 in the World Cup semifinals last October, then defeated Sweden to take the title. Intent on remaining No. 1, the Germans then opened these Olympics with a shocking 8-0 rout of China behind four goals from star forward Birgit Prinz. Their only show of vulnerability came when they had to rally from 1-0 down in the final 14 minutes for a 2-1 victory over Nigeria in the quarterfinals.

Like the United States, Germany has a deep, strong and experienced roster. Prinz is the reigning world player of the year. Silke Rottenberg has been in goal for 11 years, and she's still tough to beat. Midfielders Steffi Jones and Kerstin Garefrekes are both 5-foot-11, tall enough to look right in the eye of tough American forward Abby Wambach.

Although both teams are unbeaten in the Olympic tournament, Germany has to be considered the favorite.

"They're the best team in the world," Hamm said. "They proved that to us last year at the World Cup. And that's the way we're going to approach the game, that we respect them that much."

That puts the U.S. team in a role it hasn't played in 13 years - underdog.

Since winning the 1991 World Cup in China, the Americans have always been the favorites.

They were the defending champions at the 1995 World Cup, but they lost to Norway in the semifinals. They were favored to win the gold at the 1996 Atlanta Olympics because they were home, and they did. The same was true for the 1999 World Cup. They then went to Sydney to defend their Olympic title in 2000, but they lost again to Norway and settled for silver.

Last year, the United States hosted the World Cup again, and Germany provided the upset.

Now Hamm and Co. want to return the favor. All this year, the players would have flashbacks to the 3-0 defeat during practices, then work to fix the mistakes. What happened on the corner kick that produced a goal in the 15th minute? How about the missed scoring chances?

The game was closer than the final score indicated because the U.S. team was desperately pressing for a tying goal in the final minutes, leaving a vulnerable defense that surrendered two late goals.

"We're always coming back to that game," Foudy said. "It's a great thing. It's fresh. The memory's fresh. It still hurts, and we always say we have to extract lessons from losses, and there were a lot of lessons to extract from that."