Asif Burhan
in Vancouver

AS WILDFIRES raged in British Columbia, creating a haze in the World Cup final stadium, the United States produced a smoking opening salvo which blew Japan away and left the world champions gasping for breath.

The highest-scoring World Cup final in history was a fitting end to four weeks of football which have opened minds at home but ultimately proved how far behind we are compared to a country such as the US. Winners for the third time, their players are genuine superstars of women’s sport, adored by the fans who travelled in their tens of thousands to watch them here in Canada.

Carli Lloyd, who blazed her penalty over the bar in the 2011 final shoot-out against Japan has spent the ensuing four years making amends. Her two goals won the London Olympics final against the same opponents. Now she obliterated them to wipe away the memories of Frankfurt. Her goal-scoring exploits tied the midfielder as leading goalscorer in the tournament as well as winning the Golden Ball for player of the finals.

Lloyd claimed to be “speechless” yesterday, after her stand out performance. After a pause, she added: “This doesn’t feel real, it hasn’t sunk in.

“I’m so unbelievably proud of every person on this team, we just made history and we’re a part of it.”

Coach Jill Ellis said: “[It’s] just pure elation, I’m so, so proud of this team and these players and so happy for every little girl that dreams of this.”

And of her talismanic player she said: “I called her my ‘beast’ and she’s unbelievable, a rock star, I’m just so happy for her.”

With six single-goal victories to their name, Japan once more finished a match with more possession than their opponents but never recovered from the shock of going behind for the first time in the tournament. Twice in the opening minutes, Lloyd showed incredible hunger to poke in from right-wing set pieces. Once a misplaced header was lashed home on the volley by Lauren Holiday, the final was over. Yet Lloyd wasn’t finished, smashing the ball from the halfway line over AyumiKaihori, the Japanese heroine four years ago.

Japan continued to play good football and slowly edged their way back into the game, Yuki Ogimi curling home a beautiful shot after a well-worked move. When Julie Johnston flicked a long free kick beyond Hope Solo at the start of the second half, an unlikely come back seemed possible.

Yet the US just turned on the gas again. Alex Morgan missed her header from Megan Rapinoe’s corner but, before the defence could regroup, the ball was cut back to Tobin Heath who ended the scoring from close range.

A team that looked stronger as the tournament progressed, the US hit a glorious peak on the biggest occasion in women’s sport. Now, we as fans have to ensure women’s football continues to grow on the back of the success of this World Cup. It is easy for us to call for greater investment in the sport but the greatest investment we can make is to go through the turnstiles ourselves and make our players feel like superstars.