VANCOUVER, British Columbia --
That wasn't a victory. That was grand theft soccer -- and it came in the biggest game on the grandest stage with a whole lot of Jersey attitude.
What Carli Lloyd and the United States women's national team heisted inside the muggy confines of BC Place Sunday evening wasn't merely a 5-2 win over defending Women's World Cup champion Japan. It was seizure by the U.S. of the right to claim being the greatest team in women's international soccer.
Goodbye to 1999. Goodbye to 16 years of World Cup futility. Goodbye to the searing memory of July 17, 2011, when the U.S. twice held the lead against Japan in the Women's World Cup final in Frankfurt and three times let the game escape them.
Seem it's true what Lloyd, Abby Wambach, Ali Krieger, Hope Solo, Alex Morgan and every woman part of that devastating loss in 2011: Never again!
Even Japan's great Homare Sawa understood the momentousness of the moment for the U.S. When Wambach subbed into her final World Cup game, the 36-year-old former captain for Japan walked over and gave a high-five to the 35-year-old Wambach. Just a touch of hands for two of the game's all-time great warriors, though on this night, it was all about the U.S