Success is not guaranteed for the USWNT. Just ask China's Steel Roses

Sporting history is littered with Sliding Doors moments, instances when future fortunes pivot on one swing of a bat, one toss of a ball or one swipe of a boot. So named for the 1998 movie in which alternate realities of Gwyneth Paltrow's lead character's life play out simultaneously, diverging at the point at which she did or didn't get on a tube train, the most consequential example of a Sliding Doors moment in the history of women's soccer came on 10 July 1999 at the Rose Bowl in Pasadena, California. After a goalless 120 minutes, and preceded by nine-tenths…