Marta Bows Out With Silver, Restoring Brazil’s Pride

“Cry at the beginning so you can smile at the end.”

Had Brazil lived up to Marta’s famous words after a 1-0 defeat in the Olympic final against the US on Saturday in Paris? The South Americans were condemned to their third silver medal in history. Marta herself provided the answer: “I am crying here of gratitude, of happiness. I am not crying because we won silver. Look, how much Brazil had to overcome in this tournament to reach this final. This silver medal restores our pride – when you put on the shirt of Brazil, represent our country, and play with joy, desire, determination, and perseverance. Silver here, gold in life.”

Once again, Brazil and Marta had fallen short. After an agonizing twelve minutes of injury time and an outstanding save from Alyssa Naeher, Marta stood in the center circle, contemplating defeat and the crushing reality that a gold medal – or major prize – would remain elusive forever. Her international career was over. The Americans celebrated their gold medal to the tunes of ‘Born in the USA’, the stands around Marta rocking in the glow of a summer day in the French capital.

In his team’s moment of need, Brazilian manager Arthur Elias had turned to Marta. Against the run of play, his side fell behind to a slick 57th-minute American goal and needed leadership, experience, and vision to contend with the US, so feeble until Brazil lost midfielder Yaya to injury. Marta had all of those virtues in abundance, but Brazil was rattled. Where the South Americans had outrun and outplayed the US in the first half, they were chasing the ball in the second half. There were flashes of Marta’s class – on set pieces, on isolated runs, but it was not enough. She did not look sharp.

In soccer, perfect endings are rare. Yet again, Marta, in her third Olympic final, had to settle for silver. Yet again, the US was too strong, the margin of victory a single goal. Two decades ago, Brazil’s number ten tasted defeat at the hands of the US at the 2004 Olympic Games in Athens. Back then, Marta was a prodigy, exploding onto the world stage, a year after debuting, aged seventeen, at the World Cup.

A phenomenon and lodestar towering over the game for almost two decades, she faded into the Australian night last year after a World Cup exit against Jamaica with a tearful message that this was just the beginning for Brazil, echoing her words from the 2019 global finals – “cry at the beginning so you can smile at the end.”

Carried by her team, she resurged for one last hooray at these Olympic Games. Yet that grand farewell seemed thwarted when she was sent off for fouling Olga Carmona with a high boot in the group stages, incurring a two-match ban. More tears followed at the realization that her time with Brazil was up.

Elias and his side however defied logic with knockout wins against the host France and world champion Spain. Jennifer Hermoso blasted Brazil’s style of play, but the semi-final victory offered Marta precisely what she had craved – the opportunity of a glorious sendoff. Brazil faced the four-time gold medallist and its ingrained winning mentality. Manager Emma Hayes revived the US who counted on the attacking trio of Trinity Rodman, Sophia Smith, and Mallory Swanson for new glory.

The US’s array of talent is at its simplest very good, at its best utterly daunting. Brazil won just four of its 42 encounters against the Americans. The South Americans and Marta never won when it truly mattered – in the Olympic finals of 2004 and 2008, twice finishing second on the podium. History repeated itself when Swanson in a moment of individual brilliance decided the final. It was unforgiving on Brazil and Marta.

As she left the field, Elias hugged her but Marta cried. She received a last round of warm applause, a sense of appreciation for everything Marta had done for the game engulfed the stadium. Brazil and Marta remain the best team to not have claimed Olympic gold or the World Cup, but the team proved during the tournament that it can be competitive at the elite level, even without its number ten. That reassured Marta and, at last, with a smile on her face, she disappeared into the tunnel.