Women's Soccer World Cup: Japan won on penalty kicks. Great game. I was rooting for the USA! Did you watch it?

Some of the players on the amazingly resilient U.S. women's soccer team had started to believe, especially after the miracle against Brazil a week earlier, that they were a team of destiny. But what if there are two teams of destiny? Maybe that's what happened Sunday in front of a sellout crowd of 48,817 in the final of the FIFA Women's World Cup.

It ended 1-1 after regulation, then 2-2 after overtime, then came down to a penalty-kick shootout, as did the Americans' quarterfinal victory against Brazil, which the U.S. team won to become an overnight sensation back home. This time, the shootout went awry for the Americans, and the Japanese won 3-1. It was a result that, for the U.S. team, was painful.

It was an ending — the Americans coughed up a 1-0 lead with nine minutes left in regulation, a 2-1 lead with three minutes left in overtime — that was excruciating. "I guess it's never over till it's over, and we know that more than anybody," U.S. defender Rachel Buehler said. As disappointed as the U.S. players were, they felt that in some ways the result was quite fitting, given the nightmare the Japanese have lived through since the deadly earthquake and tsunami that struck in March.

"Maybe their country needed them to win more than our country needed us to win," U.S. star forward Abby Wambach said. Midfielder Carli Lloyd, one of three U.S. players unable to make a penalty kick in the shootout, agreed with Wambach. "Deep down inside, I thought it was our destiny to win it," Lloyd said.

The Americans were vying to win the Women's World Cup for the third time, but the first since the legendary Mia Hamm-led 1999 team won in front of a 90,000-plus crowd at the Rose Bowl. Instead, Japan, which never had been to a World Cup or Olympic final and never had beaten the U.S. women — they were 0-22-3, having been outscored 77-13 — is the 2011 World Cup champ. If that seems shocking, it's just another indication that women's soccer has developed from just a handful of teams capable of winning a title in, say, 1999, to maybe a dozen legitimate contenders in 2011.

"Teams are catching up to us," U.S. defender Ali Krieger said. Japanese goalkeeper Ayumi Kaihori, who made saves on penalty kicks by Shannon Boxx and Tobin Heath in the shootout, was named player of the match. "We have some very good players on the team, and this is why we have been able to win the final," Kaihori said.

"I received excellent support from the other players and I want to emphasize this is a team effort. In the end, the bumpy road the Americans have been on since shockingly losing to Mexico in a World Cup qualifier in November finally caught up to them. So did their inability to consistently take advantage of scoring opportunities, a recurring theme during the tournament.

The Americans outshot Japan 12-5 in the first half, including one by Wambach that hit the crossbar. After Alex Morgan scored in the 69th minute to break a scoreless tie, the U.S. defense allowed an equalizer in the 81st minute. Buehler cleared a loose ball in front of the goal, but Krieger punched it right back in front of the goal, and Japan's Aya Miyama sent it past goalkeeper Hope Solo, who had no chance to react to the play.

"I wasn't expecting what happened," Krieger said. In overtime, Wambach gave the Americans a 2-1 lead in the 104th minute, heading in a pretty cross from Morgan. Morgan, 22, of Diamond Bar, Calif.

, is the youngest player on the U.S. team, and her stellar second half, along with her goal in the second half of the semifinal against France, was one indication that the U.S. team's future is promising. "This was a great experience for her," U.S. coach Pia Sundhage said of Morgan. "She has done well coming off the bench.

It was still 2-1 with three minutes left in overtime. "I remember seeing the clock with five minutes to go and thinking, 'We can do this,'" Lloyd said. But Japanese star midfielder Homare Sawa, a five-time World Cup player, scored on a deft touch off a corner kick in the 117th minute.

It was her fifth goal of the tournament, which led all scorers and was one more than Wambach and Brazil's Marta. "That was just an example of Japanese precision on their set pieces," Buehler said. "She got a foot on it.

"A remarkable player," Solo said of Sawa, Japan's 32-year-old captain. The late scores by Japan were uncharacteristic of earlier U.S. matches. The Americans had been the team coming back, scoring late, making the clutch plays down the stretch.

"It's tough because we were just minutes away," Wambach said. It was as though the USA, which had been the aggressor, went into a sort of prevent defense, and it backfired. "It started with our attack, giving the ball away too easy," Sundhage said.

"And we just weren't sharp enough with our defense on the two goals. In the shootout, Boxx went first, and her shot to the right was saved by Kaihori. After Japan made its first kick, Lloyd sent hers high over the crossbar.

Solo saved Japan's second attempt, but then Heath's kick resulted in another save by Kaihori. Three consecutive misses was too big a hole from which to crawl out. When Japan's Saki Kumagai knocked her shot past Solo, that clinched it, and the Japanese players swarmed the field in celebration.

"We had been in penalty kicks previously against Brazil, and we had a good feeling tonight going into the penalty kicks," Sundhage said. Wambach, 31, had said before the tournament that she considered her long and glorious career — she's an Olympic gold medalist and the third-leading goal scorer in U.S. women's soccer history — incomplete without a World Cup championship. She will have to wait and see if she can return to the World Cup at age 35.

"I'm not thinking about that right now," Wambach said. "I just want to spend some time with my teammates. "This has been an emotional roller coaster.

We'll go back, play on our respective teams in our league (Women's Professional Soccer). And the Olympics are around the corner. We'll move on.

"I feel devastated, but I feel proud of my teammates. And I give Japan credit. They just never gave up.

The loss put a downer of an ending to a U.S. run to the final that had captivated Americans in a similar fashion to the 1999 tournament. Somewhere along the way, probably in the Brazil game, this team successfully moved out of the shadow of the so-called '99ers and created a compelling and separate identity. Before the match Sunday, President Obama, consumed with the debt crisis, tweeted his support: "Sorry I can't be there to see you play, but I'll be cheering you on from here.

The president did assign an official delegation to the title match, led by Vice President Biden's wife, Jill, and including former first daughter Chelsea Clinton. Clinton's mother, Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton, also became a fan. "I am so proud of the U.S. women," Clinton told news reporters in Greece.

They were proud of one another, too. When it was over, Lauren Cheney, who played three positions in this tournament and shined at all of them, limped away from the locker room on crutches. She had rolled her right ankle in the first minute, yet played in pain the rest of the half and wanted to take the field in the second half, too, but was replaced by Morgan.

"It wasn't a great feeling watching it slip away," Cheney said. "Our team fought so much. I'm so proud of them.

We've beaten so many odds. "I love this team so much.".