The reply to the quiz query of who was accountable for this end, the tip to the lengthy and storied World Cup profession of the Brazil nice Marta, shall be Jamaica.
Marta’s two-decade relationship with the World Cup is over after Jamaica, one of the shock performers in a event marked abruptly performances, prevented Brazil from securing the win it required to achieve the spherical of 16. Jamaica held Brazil scoreless in a draw, 0-0, in Melbourne.
“Marta ends here. There’s no more World Cup for Marta,” she mentioned. “I’m very grateful for the opportunity I had to play in another World Cup, and very happy with everything that has been happening in women’s football in Brazil and in the world.”
Jamaica, which reached the knockouts in the identical World Cup wherein it gained its first sport within the event, completed second in its group to France, which comfortably beat Panama, 6-3.
In a event that has recommended a altering of the guard, with upset outcomes changing into commonplace, the emergence of new abilities and the fading of outdated stars, it was maybe becoming that it was Jamaica that delivered the knockout blow to Brazil and Marta, who has mentioned she won’t compete within the World Cup once more.
Having held France, thought-about one of the favorites earlier than the event, to a draw, and then successful its first World Cup sport by beating Panama, Jamaica proved itself as soon as extra on a frigid evening, displaying composure and cool heads in repelling the little offensive assault that Brazil needed to provide.
As the Brazilians slumped in dismay, Jamaica’s workforce sprinted throughout the turf, barely believing what it had completed having arrived within the event after a money disaster that noticed gamers ask the general public for monetary assist. The velocity of its achievements has shocked even its personal gamers.
“Today might be the new best day in Jamaican football history,” ahead Kayla McKenna mentioned in an interview, after the draw within the event opener towards France was heralded as such by the workforce’s coach, Lorne Donaldson.
For Brazil, lengthy a program to aspire to in world soccer, the departure on the group stage is a low it has not suffered since 1995, eight years earlier than Marta first donned the nationwide colours.
Handed her first begin of the event, a stage she has performed on for six completely different editions stretching again to a primary look in 2003, Marta was largely unable to impose herself on a sport that at occasions appeared to cross her by earlier than she was substituted with 11 minutes to go.
Now, 37, and 23 years right into a profession that’s older than some of her teammates, Marta and her teammates had been for essentially the most half stored at bay by properly organized and bodily Jamaican protection
A couple of minutes after the ultimate whistle, Marta met quietly with one of her heirs obvious, Jamaica ahead Khadija Shaw.
Shaw, a 26-year-old often known as Bunny, has known as Marta an idol previously, and she appeared to restate her admiration to the Brazilian as they spoke alone.
Marta replied with a nod and a thanks, and then pointed a finger towards Shaw and started to talk animatedly, as if to say she was passing the torch, and duty to hold the sport ahead, to younger stars like her.
“I just told her congrats on the wonderful career she had and I told her for me as a young girl growing up, she was an inspiration for me,” Shaw advised reporters. “And not just for me but for a lot of people in the Caribbean.”
Marta was in tears on the eve of the sport as she mirrored on the affect she has had on gamers — like Shaw, who was 3 when Marta first performed in a World Cup — throughout a lodestar profession.
But whereas her previous is assured to be celebrated, her future is much less clear.
Pia Sundhage, Brazil’s Swedish coach, was blunt in her evaluation of her workforce’s shortcomings. Her gamers had been, she mentioned, too sluggish and too ponderous in possession. She recommended there can be wholesale modifications the following time she picks a Brazilian squad.
No one can be spared if a greater choice will be discovered, together with Marta, who would possibly need a greater farewell than the one she had on the World Cup.
“Whether she’s good enough to be called up for the national team, well, let’s see,” mentioned Sundhage, who a day earlier was full of reward for Marta’s contribution to international soccer.
The anxiousness of a departure that may have been unthinkable when Brazil embarked for Australia was evident from the primary minutes. Brazilian followers on the sport jeered 10 minutes into the sport over what they perceived as time-wasting by the Jamaicans. That frustration was matched by their workforce, with gamers ceaselessly waving their arms in frustration on the referee.
Jamaica overcame sustained stress by Brazil within the second half to protect its shutout, stifling the Brazilians by not yielding any actual openings that put their goalkeeper, Becky Spencer, to a stern check.
When Marta was substituted out of the sport, changed by brisker, youthful legs late within the second half, she dashed to the sidelines and exhorted her replacements to make one final push, to attain the aim that may have extended her keep within the World Cup.
Those exhortations and these modifications didn’t elicit any enchancment. Marta’s World Cup, Brazil’s World Cup, is over. Jamaica will all the time keep in mind the evening its workforce despatched a World Cup legend into retirement, and the evening new stars had been born.
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