Barometer of success No. 1: This is bigger than Team USA.

That's the premise of international competition. Fans are eager for entertainment, if not a peg to hang their nationalism on. But unlike any championship tournament of any other domestic sport, the magnified stage allows for grander significance by default.

It always matters more. Period.

So when Team USA takes the field against the Japanese for the final on Sunday, they've already won a conditional prize: They've scrapped their way to the precipice of remolding the way we regard women's sports in this country, and consequently the world.

At its simplest: a win would make various squads emblazoned in Stars and Stripes .500 in the 18-year history of the competition, with three wins in six of the World Cups ever played. That's more than dynastic. For a sport open to every collection of citizens in the free world, that's global dominance.

That makes the United States the foremost authority in something, a role we love to love. Supremacy is as valuable a selling point as any, regardless of what's in question. Case in point: the moment Joey Chestnut overtook Takeru Kobayashi as the most efficient gobbler of processed pork, he was indoctrinated as a national hero, his sport one our pastimes.

Difference is, you could actually bear to watch women's soccer without a steel trash can within arm's reach. That, and the Nielsen ratings that put the two on the same par during group play. With a humble baseline of 0.9 to 1.2, the floating figure for the group stage, there was room to grow.

We've seen that already, with a record 2.6 draw from Team USA's instant-iconic performance in the quarterfinals, emblematic that America is willing to support soccer (one) and a women's sport (two), even with moderate success.

Remember: That figure measures viewers. Not entertainment value. Not memorability. Not approval of time spent.

These people tuned in before the theatrics, unaware that their fandom would be rewarded. Granted, enthusiasts assumed a tilt with the 2007 runners-up would sizzle. But the game's finish had no bearing on that more than doubling in popularity.

They cared before Megan Rapinoe's cross with postage attached. Before Abby Wambach's finish and intimate celebration. Before Hope Solo sprawled out in defiance. Before Ali Krieger buried the Brazilians and 2005 health scares.

That Team USA's shining moments have been debated in the same arenas as the greatest sports moments of all time, regardless of gender, is a watermark of how far it's already come.
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They cared before everything that cemented the moment among the fondest in the American sports memory. Imagine the ceiling now, with that miraculous sliver plastered in our banks, and across ESPN as No. 5 of its top 10 most dramatic moments, given daps over Christian Laettner's last-second shot, the "Shot Heard 'Round the World," Kirk Gibson's 1988 World Series gamesmanship and the "Immaculate Reception."

Even a Michael Jordan highlight deferred. If you're fishing for a way to tweet what I'm getting at, that encompasses a more-than-telling gist in a 140 characters. 

And it doesn't matter whether that distinction is unanimously accepted (I didn't). But that it's been suggested by "the worldwide leader in sports," and given attention enough to debate already puts women's soccer, if not sports, in a less-than-laughable regard.

That's accomplishment. That's progress.

Even if Team USA loses, there's still a chance for it to prove itself in 2015: if our affection outlasts defeat and a four-year that makes runners-up easy to forget.
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Even if it exists only in this isolated instance—hard to imagine the WNBA garnering that in the foreseeable future—that forever changes our perception of all women's sports, unconsciously demanding more respect for all female athletes. It paves the way for others.

That's more than you could say about either the 1991 or 1999 World Cup-winning teams. If nothing else, Team USA has superceded even the loftier moments in its own chronology.

That's also untouchable. Win or lose in final, reaching that plateau can't be rescinded. It can slide (more on that later), but charting the relevance of women's soccer will inevitably and indisputably include that blip, however long- (or short-) lived.

What transpired today, a 3-1, from-the-start outmuscling of the French in the semis, can only help that. The overnight ratings haven't been released, but they don't need referencing. Even a slight dip in viewership in the gateway game would be more-than-compensated for with an upswing in the final.

That the team has marketable stars bodes well for its future, given the popularity and platforms that follow.
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If not, we'll be writing an entirely different column. 

But there's a switch in the tracks at this juncture: a cup win offers immediate social relevance, whereas a loss would put figuring that out off until 2015. If we still care when the next cup rolls in, even after dismissal and a four-year hangover, they've won us over.

Either way, they're onto something.

At worst, likely a loss and waning interest that follows, Team USA would prove a fickle interest, holding a place in our hearts, but with expendability. That puts them at least on par with the Yankee men, in our good graces so long as they aren't face planting out of the gates and stumbling toward inexplicable tournament outs.

I think soccer and women's sports' devout will take that.

But at best, possible after beating the team that bumped the defending champs in the quarters, Team USA holds influence over the future of women's sports. Popularity is currency in sports; so long as it lasts, the advertisements and networks do. That pads (here it comes...) their "brand" and buys more time in our conscious.

That matters. Look at the way Major League Baseball doesn't market its stars (it doesn't), and the consequence: a record-low 6.9 Nielsen rating for Tuesday's 2011 All-Star Game. Being profitable gives the opportunity to become endeared to the masses, as reliable an anchor for star.

Enough of them, and that becomes your whole sport.

Parlay that and replenish the cupboard for the 2015 World Cup (Solo and Wombach will be 33 and 35 years old, respectively) and just like that, women's soccer becomes as more of a staple as UConn women's basketball, given its national grounding and global platform.

Soccer has other advantages over basketball and any other sport, in that it has less opportunity to lose. That precludes it from streaks that time-stamp our interest, sustainable only for so long. The second UConn's girls lost, our attention wandered. The World Cup is a once-in-four-years affair, pumping urgency into every second of every match. Can't say that about women's college hoops, where "there's always next year."

So in some ways, women's soccer is structured for longevity.

And from what it looks like, Team USA is taking full advantage—and stretching out its potential.