LYON, France — That sound the U.S. women heard throughout the World Cup was the Europeans coming.

Spain, Italy, France, England and the Netherlands, their opponent in the final, are all countries that have developed a newfound interest in their women’s team in the last five years and responded with increased investment and support. They have funded domestic leagues and their national teams, allowing their players to be full-time professionals and giving up-and-coming players a structure for development.

That translated into success on the field, with seven European teams making the quarterfinals, and the progress is only going to accelerate.

Spain, for example, reached the knockout rounds in only its second World Cup appearance. But its youth teams have already established themselves as a world powerhouse, winning the Under-17 World Cup last year and finishing as the runner-up in the U-20 edition. Fast-forward four years, and it doesn’t take a genius to imagine a vastly improved Spain team that can rival the U.S.

Same for the Dutch, who made the final just a decade after qualifying for their first major international tournament, thanks in large part to a domestic league created in 2007.

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“You look at the teams in Europe that have invested in their teams or different federations around the world,” Megan Rapinoe said Saturday. “There’s the clearest correlation you could possibly see with money invested from a federation and the level of play and the product on the field and the level of success that these teams are having.”

That does not mean the days of the U.S. dynasty are numbered, however, or that this fourth title will be their last.

The U.S. women are always going to have an advantage simply because of the sheer size of their talent pool. The Americans had so much depth at this World Cup they could afford to bring Carli Lloyd, a two-time FIFA world player of the year, off the bench, and alternate between Lindsey Horan and Sam Mewis in the starting lineup.

They also have an established structure for the national team, and their fitness coach, Dawn Scott, is probably the best in the world. Their domestic league, the NWSL, had more players at the World Cup than any other league, including all 23 Americans.

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But the Americans cannot be content with any of this, naively believing that their foundation and “ruthless streak of wanting to win,” as England coach Phil Neville called it, will be enough to continue carrying them through. Because it won’t.

The entire U.S. women’s team is suing U.S. Soccer over for discrimination, and the Wall Street Journal reported late last month that they have agreed to seek mediation when the World Cup ended. A settlement needs to be reached as soon as possible.

U.S. Soccer has done more to support its women’s team than any other federation, it’s true. But there is more it can – and should – do, and it will do U.S. Soccer no good to be portrayed as nickel and diming its World Cup champions while the rest of the country is showering them with love.

In case U.S. Soccer president Carlos Cordeiro couldn’t hear, those were chants of “Equal pay! Equal pay!” that echoed through the stadium as confetti rained down on the Americans.

“Everyone is ready for this conversation to move to this next step,” Rapinoe said Sunday night. “We’re done with the, `Are we worth it? Should we have equal pay? Is the market the same?’ Everyone’s done with that. … Let’s get to the next point of what’s next.

“And a little public shame never hurt anybody,” Rapinoe added, referring to the “equal pay” chants. “So I’m down with that.”

Settling the lawsuit also will allow the federation and the women to work together to strengthen the NWSL. The league is in its seventh season, lasting longer than any of the other iterations, but it struggles for public attention and the all-important corporate support.

The league did get a boost over the weekend, announcing a TV deal with ESPN for the rest of the season and a multi-year sponsorship deal with Budweiser. But the timing of both announcements was curious, at best -- the Budweiser deal was made public in the wee hours Sunday -- showing how much league officials still have to learn about maximizing their visibility.

There will be a spike in interest as the World Cup players return to their NWSL teams, but the league – and the federation – needs to find a way to sustain that. If not, don’t be surprised when the big European clubs that have gotten into the women’s game – Barcelona, Real Madrid, Manchester United –start coming after the U.S. stars as they capitalize on the popularity of the World Cup.

And then there’s the structure of the youth game in the United States.

The pay-to-play system has to be fixed, because for as deep as the Americans are, they’re still missing out on an untold number of players whose parents can’t afford to pay the fees for select teams and out-of-town tournaments.

Coach Jill Ellis also pointed to the age group structure, which doesn’t allow for phenoms to play against older, better players.

“That’s going to hurt us,” Ellis said plainly. “In Europe, a 16-, 17-year-old is training with 25- and 26-year-olds. We’re still on the model of 16-year-olds playing against 16-year-olds. I’m not saying to restructure the whole model. We just need to elevate and advance the players out of their age groups so they get better competition and they’re challenged more.”

Keeping Ellis, whose contract expires soon, should also be a priority. She is often criticized, but she is now one of only two coaches to win World Cup titles, Italy’s Vittorio Pozzo in 1934 and ’38 the other.

And it was Ellis who recognized after the debacle at the Rio Olympics, where the Americans lost to Sweden in the quarterfinals in their earliest exit ever from a major tournament, that the team needed a major overhaul. She sidelined some players – Ali Krieger went almost two years without a call-up – and changed the roles of others. She brought in an infusion of young talent.

She also changed the way the Americans played, switching to an attacking formation that was both highly entertaining and highly effective.

“I just knew we had to continue to evolve and be able to do more things in terms of how we play because the game is growing so fast,” Ellis said. “That was hard. But that was ultimately the right decision.”

The Americans have long been the leaders in pushing for global growth. Now that it's finally happening, there is work to be done domestically to ensure those efforts do not lead to their dynasty's demise.

Follow USA TODAY Sports columnist Nancy Armour on Twitter @nrarmour.