Congratulations to the USWNT! Yesterday, for the first time since 1999, the U.S. National Women's Team brought the World Cup back to U.S. soil. Among the many thrilling moments in the game was Carli Lloyd's incredible 16th-minute goal from midfield, where she cleverly lofted the ball—from some fifty yards out--to put the sun directly in goalie Ayumi Kaihori's eyes.

That stunning goal aside, sadly, women in soccer worldwide are similar to women in industrial design worldwide: Largely invisible, unsupported, and not as well-compensated as their male counterparts. All of New York City was in the fever grip of the men's World Cup last year; for this year's women's World Cup, you could hardly find a bar playing the matches. Much has been made of how the women were forced to play on Astroturf this year while the men enjoyed grass last year. And we've yet to see a sporting goods manufacturer like Nike create a viral footie video centered around a female star, although we've now got the best women's team in the world.

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That being said, we'd be remiss not to show you the following men's soccer vid. For those that remember Guy Ritchie's seminal "Take it to the Next Level" video from six years ago, shot entirely POV, Nike has taken this one up a notch by making it 360 and VR-style: If you watch it on your phone via the YouTube app, or on your desktop in a Chrome browser, you can pan around to see everything (it's much more interesting to look down and see what's going on with the ball):

Nike released the video to promote their new Hypervenom II cleats. But while watching the video I wasn't thinking about the shoes; I was thinking I really want to see one of these featuring Megan Rapinoe, like when she's evading numerous defenders as in this clip vs. Australia:

We're attempting to remedy the lack of spotlight on female ID'ers with our Designing Women series. As for getting more attention on women in soccer, only you can do that, by watching them; more eyeballs will equal more advertising dollars, which will lead to higher visibility. Post-World-Cup, you can continue watching women's soccer—the Olympic qualifiers are coming up—and there's a list of links to get you started here.

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