(CNN) - For the ability to rise to the occasion, for the aptitude to turn a blind eye to pressure and produce on the grandest of stages, there is still no team quite like the US as the defending champion saw off a talented England team 2-1 to reach the Women's World Cup final.
Though challenged by the world's finest teams in the knockouts, the USWNT remains firmly on its perch.
Megan Rapinoe, the match winner in both the last-16 and quarterfinal ties, started on the substitutes' bench, to the surprise of many.
After much of the pre-match talk centered on Lucy Bronze going head-to-head with Rapinoe it was Press the England player -- dubbed the best in the world by her manager Phil Neville -- had to shackle.
Again, the US' game plan worked, though in the closing stages the USWNT had to hold on.