THE FRONT ROW with JIM LITKE July 11, 2011

If Americans don't fall in love with soccer after this, well, maybe they never will.

Yes, the epic quarterfinal win by the U.S. women over Brazil featured nearly everything their countrymen hate about the "beautiful game."

They faced off against a team with better individual skills, plus an imagination and intuition about how to play that develops only over decades. They were handcuffed by lousy calls - with no chance of appeal - then mocked by dives and fake injuries cynically designed to steal their momentum and the little time that remained on the clock.

To top it off, after hard work and a last-gasp equalizer erased all that, their fortunes still hinged on those notoriously fickle penalty kicks.

But oh, oh, oh, that ending.

Oh so just, if not exactly swift.

"I really don't know what to say," veteran Abby Wambach began seconds after the U.S. won the penalty-kick contest 5-3.

But it didn't take her long to come up with something.

"That is a perfect example of what this country is about, what the history of this team has always been," Wambach added. "We never give up."

If only this once, even the haters back in the States should be able to appreciate why the rest of the world believes there's no greater drama in sports than watching a team trying to validate its national character in a World Cup. And for a nation wearied by a fluttering economy and political paralysis, it could hardly come at a better time.

Highlights of the game were shown between innings on the large video board in Yankee Stadium, and a crowd half a world away from Dresden, Germany, erupted as if it was there. A stream of luminaries as diverse as LeBron James and GOP presidential hopeful Jon Huntsman rushed to Twitter to pass along congratulations - humbled, one hopes, by a display of grit and teamwork that has become increasingly rare back home.

Jim Litke is a national sports columnist for The Associated Press. Write to him at [email protected]