We Get a Kick Out of You

The U.S. women’s soccer team plays China Saturday in the World Cup finale, which, however it ends, will crown America and every member of this team as top-rank in international competition. These are dazzling athletes, superbly coached, and this is the game they have sought since they first laced up soccer shoes.

The team’s players have reached the Cup final at the Rose Bowl for a simple reason: They have the right stuff, the teamwork, the discipline and determination. And perhaps equally important, they have climbed to the top on the rungs of Title IX, the educational amendment passed by Congress in 1972 that, among other things, prohibits discrimination against girls and women in federally funded education and athletic programs. Title IX helped to improve opportunity for women athletes, clearing the way for better programs and facilities. The state of today’s women athletes under Title IX falls far short of gender equality, but, after this run to the top by the soccer team, surely their successors will have access to more athletic scholarships.

Much of the credit goes to America’s soccer moms, urban and suburban, who hauled teams from field to field as soccer exploded in recent decades.

At long last in America, the world’s most popular sport is the talk of the nation, and this is the team that did it.