Great performance. Three goals by Carli Lloyd as the U.S. overwhelmed Japan in the final of the Fifa Women’s World Cup.

Lloyd in this one reminded me a bit of Zinedine Zidane, also a midfielder and a No. 10, normally an organizer who turned scorer in the biggest of matches. (Zidane had two in the 1998 World Cup final.) Her lob goal over Japan’s keeper from midfield showed impressive awareness and vision.

That’s three World Cup championships for the American women now, of the seven that have been played.

It also was a very public success: 25 million U.S. viewers, the biggest audience for an English-language soccer telecast in the country. For a men’s or women’s game.

What’s next for the U.S. women, and women’s soccer, in general?

Well, the 2016 Rio Olympics … and then the 2019 Women’s World Cup, in France.

And what of club soccer for women?

Well, that’s another issue entirely.

Women’s club soccer has not yet succeeded in the U.S., and its status is hardly any better in the rest of the world.

A look at Carli Lloyd’s wiki page gives an indication of the state of the women’s club game during her career. Her club career didn’t really begin until 2009, the year when she was 27, and shows a lot of movement for an elite player, a function of the weakness of the professional women’s game in this country.

It would be nice to think that will change now, especially with interest in the current women’s national team so high.

Hard to imagine that happening, however.

Consider the WNBA. In its early years, it was backed (and promoted) by the NBA. But after nearly 20 seasons, it still cannot be considered a commercial success. Modest attendance, modest pay, no significant TV contracts or exposure.

And basketball remains significantly more popular in the States than is soccer.

Basketball leagues of some real significance and financial wherewithal have sprung up around the world, and particularly in Russia, where Diana Taurasi plays now, having become weary of the poor pay in the WNBA.

The women’s soccer game needs something like that if the game’s top players are to have actual careers, making money — enough to live on comfortably, if not extravagantly, as the men do.

But the audience does not seem to be there. (And doesn’t for any women’s sport, aside from elite tennis.)

For the big international tournaments? Yes. But those cover only two months over every four years. Club soccer should fill in the rest of the gap. So far, it is failing to do so, even in the wealthy and soccer-savvy nations of Europe.

What are the solutions? Not sure any exist right now. Not as long as the soccer public seems immune/disinterested to women’s club football. And not just in the U.S., but all over the planet.

The two major international tournaments likely will remain popular. But two years out of four, the women’s game will struggle to keep in the public eye.