“Real power doesn’t come from lifting a dumbbell or having a big office. Those are just petty little varieties of it. If you want to see real power, watch a swell coming across the ocean, an immeasurable displacement that utterly remakes the terrain. That’s what you witnessed in these U.S. Women’s World Cup champions: the gathering of real power.

Power is Megan Rapinoe, cold and still as an icefall as she eyed the Netherlands goalie before a penalty kick. “I’m made for this; I love it,” she said later. On the spot in merely the biggest tournament in the world, after taking on the president politically and calling out FIFA personally, all Rapinoe did was leg-whip all of her opponents, making her body go left while her foot went right, to put the U.S. team ahead in Sunday’s final.

Power is Rose Lavelle, slicing up the middle of the field and launching that left-footed Stinger missile of a shot that practically had a contrail for the 2-0 margin of victory. The whole team, heaving upward with the trophy in its hands while the stadium chanted: “Equal pay! Equal pay!” — that is power.”