WEMBLEY, England – The game was nearly as grand as the stage, in doubt until the last seconds and so important that the winning country’s commander in chief was following it back home. Across town, Usain Bolt was doing in London what he did in Beijing, but for 80,203 people at Wembley Stadium and the two best women’s soccer teams in the world, this was their Olympic moment.

Soccer always has been little more than an afterthought at the Olympics, but this was different. This was the U.S. and Japan before the biggest Olympic soccer crowd ever – a flag-waving, cheery throng that made noise from the beginning to the end – and this was a night to celebrate no matter which country took home the gold.

Carli Lloyd and Hope Solo made sure it was the Americans winning their third straight soccer gold, with Lloyd doing all the scoring for the U.S. and Solo – perhaps the best female goalie to play the game –
batting away almost everything aimed at her by an