First thing that went through my mind when the winning penalty of the Fifa Women’s World Cup went in:

“Well, good for them.”

Japan’s 11 played their hearts out. They showed incredible resilience up to and through the final, when they twice overcame a United States lead.

It was a bitter disappointment for the Yanks, who must have thought — twice — they had done enough to win. Only to see Japan get the tying goal. Twice. The second time in the 116th minute.

When it was over, the biggest winner was … soccer.

Is this only a soccer thing? Pretty much. This idea that there is winning, and then there is winning the right way.

With flair. With panache. With heart and character. But also with generous helpings of style, technical wizardry and a sort of corporate, one-for-all-and-all-for-one approach to the game. A team of interlocking, equally important parts.

Japan ticked all the boxes, as the Brits like to say. They won, but they won the right way. With brilliant teamwork, unparalleled skill, excellence on the ball, outstanding technique. They played attractive soccer, and that brings plaudits by the bushel, in soccer.

They were a small team, with clear physical limitations, yet they overcame that with their passing and their cohesion, their play but also their spirit.

Making note of that does seem rather specific to the sport. Basketball, rugby, American football, hockey, any other team sport you can name, the cognoscenti don’t sit around critiquing how you did it, on some sort of attractiveness scale. Victory is all the justification you need. Only in soccer do we want style as well as results. Spain gave us that. So does Barcelona. Brazil, once upon a time.

And now, so has Japan, the Barcelona of the women’s game.

Japan won this game more than the U.S. lost it.

Yes, the Yanks had lots of missed opportunities in the first half. Yes, they generally played better. But only the two goals, and each time they couldn’t make their lead stand up as Japan somehow found it within themselves to come back yet again.

Three critiques of the U.S. performance.

1. That disaster in front of goal before the first Japan goal … the defenders involved will be thinking about that one for a long time. The inability to clear, the feeble kick of the ball right back into danger. Awful, but not the first time this U.S. team made a hash of something basic.

2. In a way similar to the “how come France couldn’t defend Wambach on that crucial corner-kick goal?” in the semis … the Yanks will be asked why they couldn’t keep track of Homare Sawa on Japan’s goal in the 116th minute. She is not particularly tall, but did you think any of the Japanese players, except Sawa, could score on a corner? If you see the replay again, watch how far Sawa ran to get into the play and be in position to steer the ball into the goal — as the first person the ball struck. And no one impeded her. She had a free run.

3. I didn’t like the first three penalty takers for the U.S.  Shannon Boxx had a horrible tournament. She had her PK blocked against Brazil, only to get it back after the keeper was ruled to come off her line. When she walked up, someone here said, “Who’s she?” And I said, “Someone who just played all 120 minutes and you never heard her name called.” Boxx hit the ball almost right down the middle, and the Japanese keeper nearly missed out because she was flying to her left. She caught it with her foot. Awful PK.

Carli Lloyd took the second, and she had a decent game tonight in what was otherwise a bad tournament. She skied the ball over the bar. Missed the goal by a yard or three. Dreadful. That was when “the choke is on” became clear. (And when “we need a new No. 10” also must have gone through a million American minds.)

And do you really want Tobin Heath taking the third? She had just come on. She is not one of the top 15 players on the team, and you ask her to make a crucial PK there? Don’t you have to jump Wambach up to that spot? Some questions for coach Pia Sundhage there.

But, again, we have to give it to Japan. Three of their four women put their PKs past Hope Solo, allegedly the best keeper in the world.

This is good for Japan, who had never beaten Germany (or a European team) in the World Cup until they took down Germany in the quarters. They beat Sweden, another big and athletic team in the semis. And they played the U.S. to a standstill in the final, then had the moxie to win the shootout. Technically, it’s a tie, but I think most of us will remember it as Japan’s first victory in 26 meetings with the Yanks, and they did it on the biggest stage.

Best World Cup final, men’s or women’s, ever? Yes. I don’t even know what’s second. Maybe England 4, West Germany 2 in 1966.

Also, Japan is the first Asian team to win the Women’s World Cup. And it’s the first major tournament that Japan, definitely a rising soccer country, has won.

And they did it in style. Good for them. Good for the game.