With her sixth World Cup only months away, and after a long and grueling rehab process when others at this stage would’ve just retired, it seems safe to assume that the feeling is as strong as ever. She’ll stop when she doesn’t have that feeling anymore. “I’m still hungry to win, doing things on the field for people to keep screaming my name. “I still have the passion,” Marta replied. You want each word to count.ĭo you feel the same way now that you did 20 years ago when people cheer your name? It’s not just because of the accolades or the thoughts of defenders she’s destroyed throughout the years, but because when Marta fixes her attention on something - even something as mundane as a question she’s probably gotten a dozen times before - you suddenly get a sense of what it’s like to be staring her down when she has the ball at her feet. But by the time the second question was asked of her, she was already answering herself, intently looking at each reporter with each new inquiry.įor anyone who’s been around women’s soccer for a while, there’s no feeling quite like having Marta’s undivided attention. “Marta’s Marta, you know?” said Lynn Williams, laughing as if that explained everything.Īfter the match against Canada on her birthday, Marta initially asked Brazil’s press officer to stay close to translate her answers from Portuguese to English as she prepared to speak to reporters. Megan Rapinoe told the media on Tuesday, “Marta’s just the greatest player, I think, that’s ever played in our game.” In unison, they lifted their voices in joyful cheers when “10” finally blinked onto the substitute board, shared that cathartic moment when she took those first steps back out onto the grass at Exploria Stadium, and finally exploded as she took a handful of touches down the wing before feeding the ball across to Debinha for the winning goal against Japan. The anticipation for her return was a tangible feeling in the stands, as fans in canary yellow, Orlando Pride purple and red, white and blue all watched her every move. Last week in Orlando, her home NWSL hometown, fans cheered her every time she rose to keep warm while on the bench. It looks different now, especially compared to the height of her powers - breaking ankles, impossible angles with any part of her foot, testing the laws of physics and finding them unsuitable for her purposes. But continuing to highlight these things remains important, both to understand exactly what her role is now on this particular version of the Seleção under head coach Pia Sundhage and to take those moments of magic as they come, to hold them up to the light and treasure them for what they are. Marta has always been one of one, and at this point in her storied career, there isn’t much that has not already been said about the depth of her talent, the legacy she will leave and the magic she has created time and again across the world. Hours after the loss to Canada, Marta was serenading her team back at the hotel for her own birthday. On that day, she played 38 minutes in a loss to Canada, Brazil’s second match of the SheBelieves Cup and her second appearance on the field since March 2022, when she tore her ACL in a NWSL Challenge Cup match.
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