Three.

You may only see it as a numeral, but from the diamond to the ice and the hardwood to the pitch, the number three is the most significant across the sports landscape.

The rule of thirds dominates the world of sports. Whether it’s a called third strike, a smooth touch from beyond the arc or a game-clinching, last-second field goal, the number three dictates greatness.

After three top-tier opponents, three consecutive shutouts and three early goals from midfielder Carli Lloyd on afternoon of July 5, the U.S. Women’s National Soccer Team defeated Japan 5-2 and clinched its third World Cup title.

With the dramatic loss to the Japanese in a devastating World Cup final in 2011, it may seem like this is poetic justice, a feel-good story four years in the making.

But it wasn’t.

It was sheer dominance. The USWNT cruised through group play and pitched three straight shutouts in the knockout round to advance to the finals once again.

Twenty-five million Americans tuned in to watch their team trounce an outgunned Japanese squad and put the game away in the first 15 minutes of action.

To clarify, that’s a larger audience than any of the U.S. Men’s World Cup games a year ago and larger than any NBA Finals game in history.

Like it or not, the USWNT transcends soccer and sports itself. The U.S. women have won half of the World Cups they have ever been played and remain the only nation to make it to the semifinals in each of the seven tournaments ever held.

Not only have they dominated the competition, but the U.S. women have managed to take a sport mainstream that hardly even existed in the US three decades ago.

Soccer has never been bigger in the United States and is one of the fastest growing sports in America today, and this team is largely to thank for that.

The championships are nice, but the impact of this team reaches much farther. Sunday was the first, and probably last, time that I will ever see a troupe of 12-year-old girls walk into a sports bar excited to watch a game. (Crazy, right?)

But most importantly, this team inspired a whole new generation of girls to not just want to play sports, but to excel and play at the highest level. Lloyd, Hope Solo, Abby Wambach and the other stars helped raise the bar and redefine what is possible for the next generation of girls.

Now that’s pretty damn cool.