I love a good World Cup commercial.Who can forget Nike’s 2002 Secret Tournament commercial? Or this year’s Rip the Script? Stacked with soccer stars from the past and present, and handful of Hollywood heavy-hitters to make it relevant for casual fans. Bingo.When Adidas unveiled its flagship World Cup commercial a few weeks ago, the creative team similarly packed it with soccer royalty, including England’s Jude Bellingham and Spain’s teenage sensation Lamine Yamal, two players expected to help define this World Cup. In the spot, Timothée Chalamet assembles a three-a-side team to take on a mythical street-soccer trio in a fictional city.His first two picks make perfect sense.The third is Trinity Rodman.Not Christian Pulisic. Not Weston McKennie. Not Gio Reyna. Rodman, the U.S women’s national team and Washington Spirit winger.Adidas’s choice was no coincidence. Nor is it a slight against the U.S. men’s national team. Rather, it speaks to Rodman’s place in American soccer today and highlights the unique position women’s soccer occupies here.Rodman and her “Triple Espresso” teammates (Sophia Wilson and Mallory Swanson) perform in front of American audiences every week with their NWSL clubs. Their success happens in stadiums across the country, creating a level of connection and familiarity with fans. (Real Salt Lake midfielder Diego Luna was featured heavily in commercials leading up to the World Cup, but was not selected to Mauricio Pochettino’s final roster.)“The players are legitimate global stars,” Kyle Sheldon, chief operating officer of Name & Number, a soccer-specific creative and marketing agency, told The Athletic. “The domestic league (NWSL) is arguably the strongest in the world, top to bottom. Unquestionably, the fact that those players are in the U.S. backyard constantly has a significant impact.”Sheldon attended a Spirit match earlier this season when Rodman scored her first goal of the season after almost a year hiatus from the league. “It was sold out,” he said. “The pop in the stadium when she was introduced was, from my experience, second only to David Beckham and Lionel Messi where I have seen them play.”That is a remarkable comparison for any American soccer player, let alone a 24-year-old still entering her prime, working to make her own way on a U.S. team that has won four of nine Women’s World Cup titles.