Tonight’s World Cup Championship women’s final features the USA vs. Japan – the same two teams that have faced each other in the two previous major soccer finals, the 2011 World Cup and the 2012 Olympics. Japan won that most recent World Cup on penalty kicks after a 2-2 draw in regulation and overtime, and the USA beat Japan 2-1 in the Olympics final a year later. Despite settling for silver at the Olympics, the Japanese squad is the defending champion for today’s match, and the USA’s last World Cup championship win was in 1999, which means the team hasn’t won it all in this century. But the USA played brilliantly against Germany to get to this point, and today’s game, a must-see TV event, ought to do a lot to popularize soccer even more in this country. And the USA really is on a defensive roll, having not allowed a single goal since the first half of this tournament’s opening match.