The championship women of United States soccer were showered with confetti and streamers and outright love on Friday as they became the first team of female athletes to be honored with a ticker-tape parade in the Canyon of Heroes in Lower Manhattan.

The tens of thousands of fans who lined the parade route served as a sequel to the record television audience of 25.4 million that watched last Sunday as the team captured the Women’s World Cup in Canada with a 5-2 victory over Japan. Both events spoke to the growing popularity in the United States of both soccer and women’s sports, and to their potential to get even bigger.

And the outpouring of support this summer for the women’s national team and last summer for the men’s national team at the World Cup in Brazil also strengthened the notion that soccer has become the sport by which Americans most passionately express their patriotism.

Americans tend to cheer for their college alma maters or follow regional professional teams. The Super Bowl remains as popular for the commercials as for the game itself. The Olympics provide intense interest for 16 days in sports that do not attract as much mainstream attention as they once did, like track and field and figure skating.