Marta Set to Star in the WPS with Flair

Wednesday, March 25, 2009
By: Hillary Read

The first time a women’s professional soccer league launched, it pinned its hopes largely on the girl-next-door appeal of U.S. superstar Mia Hamm.

Don’t look now, but there’s a new league at hand and a new superstar at the fore. And she ain’t your mamma’s Mia.

A quick search on YouTube will give budding soccer fans all they need to know about the new face of the sport: Los Angeles Sol forward Marta Vieira da Silva, known throughout the soccer world simply as Marta, the 23-year-old Brazilian whipsaw with three FIFA World Player of the Year awards to her name and a world-class collection of embarrassed defenders in her wake.

“She may be the one star in L.A.,” Sol General Manager Charlie Naimo said of the woman who can list Kobe Bryant among her many admirers, “who is, inarguably, the very best at what she does.”

Try to get her to admit that, though – if Marta, who made her first real inroads into U.S. soccer consciousness by single-handedly destroying the U.S. in the 2007 FIFA Women’s World Cup semis, shares a quality with Hamm, it’s her determination to put team first.

“I came here to be one piece of the puzzle,” she said, speaking through an interpreter (she speaks Portuguese, Spanish, and Swedish, and her English is rapidly improving). “My objective is to be one member of the group, working hard to do all I can to achieve positive results. I didn’t come to be a star.”

Marta is determined to put her team, the Los Angeles Sol, first.“Everywhere we go, people know who she is. But after one week, she had fit in. She’s exceeded all expectations,” Naimo said. “She’s very humble. You just watch her compete – her facial expressions, the way she attacks – and you think she’s pretty tough, but she’s embraced by everybody. There’s no jealousy. Because she’s such a good person, everybody just wants to support her.”

She may be doing her best not to stand out, but as her highlight reel attests, she’ll have to tie her legs together to avoid it. Her breathtaking blend of speed, vision, agility, and creative fury blazes a neon trail on every field.

“You don’t need to know all the nuances of the sport to appreciate her gifts,” WPS Commissioner Tonya Antonucci said. “It’s fun to watch her confuse and destroy defenses; she’s really, at this point, two clicks ahead of most of the competition chasing her.”

For a fledgling league trying to get a foothold in a turbulent economy, the pressure would seem to be on its most decorated star to perform. But Marta, who’s had enough to do trying to get used to life in L.A. and the dynamics of her new team, isn’t letting on.

“The pressure will always be there, whether it’s from outside people or people within the league,” she said. “But after all is said and done, we just have to face them head-on and do the best we can to succeed.”

“If anything, I think the pressure might be reduced for her,” Antonucci said. “She’s not playing a limited number of do-or-die games for her country in the Olympics or World Cup; she’s here to play a full season of soccer throughout the spring and summer, to win a championship for L.A. and entertain the fans. I think she may even take more chances out there. She’s got 20 games to test out some new moves.”

That WPS boasts Marta as one of its featured attractions, alongside U.S. stars like Abby Wambach and Kristine Lilly, underscores the game’s international momentum, which has come a long way from the WUSA’s heavy reliance on home-grown talent.

“Marta, Kelly Smith (England national team/Boston Breakers), Formiga (Brazil national team/FC Gold Pride) – it’s so important to have these guys in the league, to let the rest of the world know we’re serious,” Naimo said.

“It was league-defining to get her signed, especially since we’re advertising ourselves as the world’s best women’s soccer league,” Antonucci said. “And although the U.S. has traditionally dominated with athleticism and skill, there’s something else going on now; you see fans getting excited about the growing creativity and free nature of the sport. I think this infusion of international talent can bring more rhythmic attack and flair to the U.S. game.”

Flair will be on full display in Sunday’s WPS opener between Los Angeles and Washington, with bruising Freedom frontliner Wambach providing a neat counterpoint to Marta’s flash.

“I think it says a lot about the quality of the league that each of the teams has players who play at a very high level, players from all over the world,” Marta said. “This has been a time of getting to know each other, getting used to everyone’s game. And it’s been going well so far.”