PRIOR to being knocked out of this year’s World Cup by Sweden, the talk around the United States national team was of a “three-peat.” Of a third World Cup in a row and a fifth in total.

It was a little optimistic, given they had not always looked at their best, or the most convincing (despite still registering plenty of good results) since Vlatko Andonovski took over from English coach Jill Ellis, but it was far from an unrealistic aim for the team still ranked No 1 in the world.

Under Ellis, the United States enjoyed World Cup triumphs in Canada in 2015 and France in 2019.

Given their record, having never finished worse than third place and having won the trophy four times since the first edition in 1991, the US had every reason to be confident.

Some saw it as arrogance, and these more negative insinuations became more frequent after their defeat on penalties to Sweden in the last 16 which, somewhat ironically, was one of their better performances at this World Cup but still saw them exit at the earliest stage in their history.

Such confidence, coupled with ability, has seen them become the most successful team at the World Cup and one of America’s most successful teams on the international stage in any sport.

This self-belief also underpinned the team’s fight for equality, not just in women’s football and for themselves and their colleagues, but in everyday life for people across the globe.

These players have inspired people to take up the sports they want to play and do the things they want to do, regardless of race, ethnicity, sexual orientation or identity, and encouraged them to be themselves.

Megan Rapinoe has been one of the driving forces behind this movement, though it has been a collective effort — as any such movement needs to be.

But, often seen as the face of the team, Rapinoe has, as a result, taken the most criticism during any backlash.

She was one of the first to take a knee in support of former NFL quarterback Colin Kaepernick’s stance against racism and police brutality, and has been regularly vocal in support of LGBT rights.

There has been support from numerous teammates throughout the years and from many players from other teams. Their collective power has undoubtedly led to increased equality in sports.

These actions and stances posed a dilemma for the many politicians and pundits who use national pride to their own ends—as a guise and an excuse to discriminate against others and foster some intolerant ideology — in that one of the most successful and most high-profile representatives of the United States on the world stage was standing for the very people their sort look to exclude.

It revealed their true colours and exposed the patriotism of these people in politics and the media as bogus.

Patriotism of this sort isn’t about the love of a country and the people in it. It is a front to hide prejudice and discrimination.

Of course, these traits are not unique to America and can be seen throughout the rest of the world.

Governments, politicians and leaders disingenuously use patriotism, often along with military pageantry, as a facade for something more sinister and to get others on their side.

This fake patriotism is also exposed by the long history of poor treatment and marginalisation of indigenous peoples, and the denial of their human and civil rights. Again, not unique to the United States.

This patriotism is not about being proud of any sense of Americanness, but about chauvinistic imperialism at home and abroad that spreads fear of supposed outsiders and anger towards them.

America has plenty of which it can be proud, including its huge, diverse and varied landscape, home to some of the world’s great natural wonders.

An idea of liberty that, though distorted, often by a falsely advertised American Dream, still exists somewhere deep down in the roots of the land and the societies living on it.

And civil rights campaigners plus other related groups and figures that have made progress against the odds and made a great impact for good on a global scale.

The United States women’s soccer team is now part of that history, and their contribution has perhaps been revealed even more in defeat.

Their success in recent years was not just on the pitch, though it helped to some degree. The biggest impact has been made off it.

A worst-ever performance in the World Cup is not the end of this work, either, and there is a chance for another group of players to continue this fight.

Where the team finished in a tournament is irrelevant to their struggle for equality.

And it is a struggle because, as seen in the aftermath of this World Cup exit, much of the mass media favours the other side, or at least repeats their ideas uncritically, posing as reporters but in reality being a willing negative influence that reinforces intolerant, discriminatory views.

It is ridiculous to suggest that only a winning team can fight for equality and human rights, but this is what some covering the team have actually suggested or alluded to.

Others have even put forward the equally ridiculous idea that this work has merely been part of a brand rather than a sincere attempt by these players to use their platform to make things easier for people in everyday life.

Rapinoe’s life would have been much easier had she not been the spokesperson for this movement, but she and many of her teammates took the more difficult route of trying to change things for the better.

These players are more representative of America than their detractors, in victory or defeat.