The “worst” World Cup nightmare
Marta’s legend remains unfinished
08/02/2023, 06:55 p.m
With Brazil, one of the favorites at the World Cup fails in the preliminary round. A dream bursts for superstar Marta at the farewell performance. She had imagined it all completely differently.
Marta first sat petrified on the bench for a few minutes, then tears slowly welled up in her eyes during the farewell round on the World Cup lawn: the dream of the final coronation burst suddenly. The six-time world footballer remains unfinished on the biggest possible stage. Your Brazilians went out in the preliminary round after a disappointing 0-0 draw against the defensive stronghold of Jamaica. Marta’s last World Cup ends in disaster.
The superstar has competed at the world championships six times since 2003, but she never won the title. “It’s difficult to speak at a moment like this,” she said on Brazilian television. “Not even in my worst nightmares did I imagine this World Cup to be like this.” With four points, the Brazilians finished behind Jamaica (5) and France (7) and failed in the preliminary round for the first time in 28 years.
Marta announced that the low point of her national team career should be the start of a glorious time. “The Brazilian people have asked for a renewal and there is a renewal. The only old woman here is me. Most of them are girls who have a lot of talent and still have a long way to go.” This team is just at the beginning: “I’ll stop here, but they keep going.”
Tears before the final game
The 37-year-old, who only played the joker role after tearing a cruciate ligament at the start of the tournament, steered the Brazilian game from the start at the end of the group, but there was still a lack of ideas. Jamaica fought back bravely and kept a clean sheet in the group stage. In the 81st minute, Marta made room for Andressa Alves, and the magic foot followed the final minutes of her World Cup career helplessly off the bench.
The Brazilian football icon had already reacted emotionally to her approaching departure from the World Cup stage before the final group game. “Do you know what’s good? When I started, there were no idols in women’s football that I could have stuck to. It’s different now,” she said on Tuesday with tears: “Now I’m going out on the street and people stop me.”
That will not change even after the bitter and surprisingly early end of the World Cup career. Her records remain: With 17 World Cup goals, she surpasses the men’s record of Miroslav Klose (16), as one of only three players she scored in five different World Cup tournaments, in 157 international matches she scored 108 goals – more than the male superstars Pelé or neymar In 2007 she was very close to the title but lost the final against Germany. Even without a world champion crowning, Marta has left an enormous legacy.