The Female Pele Plays Right Here
- August 31, 2010
Marta Vieira da Silva is the East Bay's best-kept sports secret.
The best female player in the world’s most popular sport can be found on a field in the East Bay, showing off world-class talent against top-notch competition, but in an atmosphere more befitting of a minor-leaguer than a global star.
Marta Vieira da Silva, like most Brazilian sports deities, is known by only her first name. She dances and bullies her way to dominance for FC Gold Pride, the Bay Area team in the Women’s Professional Soccer league, now in its second year of existence. Marta leads the league in goals, with 13, and has pushed a team that finished last in 2009 to the top of the league standings. At 24, she is already considered by many to be the best player in the history of women’s soccer. A four-time FIFA World Player of the year, Marta is the star of her league, an icon in her country and the global face of her sport.
“Not only is she the most talented player in the world, she’s the hardest worker,” Gold Pride coach Albertin Montoya said. “I’ve never seen a competitor like her. She’s so creative with the ball, and that’s what draws attention, but underneath that talent, she simply has the will to be the best.”
Pele, perhaps the world's greatest sports icon, has compared her to himself. During the 2008 Olympics, Kobe Bryant made a point to watch only two athletes in person: Michael Phelps and Marta. At a national team game, Brazilian fans once chanted her name, begging for her to play — in a men's match.
Her game is what results when you breed instinctual genius with technical perfection, an amalgam of back-heeling and stutter-stepping and relentless, ruthless intensity. She is equal parts performer and athlete.
But in her newfound Bay Area home, she barely draws a crowd.
On a recent Saturday night, the 5-foot-4 forward warmed up on the AstroTurf at Pioneer Stadium, on the campus of 91短视频 in Hayward, for a match against the Chicago Red Stars. Teenage girls trickled in with their youth club teammates, joining the families, soccer die-hards, and casual-but-curious sports fans in the 5,000-seat Pioneer Stadium. In all, the paid attendance totaled 2,470. While the Gold Pride went on to clinch a playoff spot with a 0-0 draw, the team drew one of its smallest crowds of the year.
“We’ve had some instability, and that’s been confusing to fans,” said Montoya, referring to the fact that in its second season, the team is now playing in its third home stadium. “But we’re winning, and the product on the field has been good, and the fans see that.”
With three games remaining, FC Gold Pride has already secured the WPS regular season championship and guaranteed itself a spot in the league championship game, which will be played Sept. 26 in Hayward. But despite their position atop the league standings, and despite the fact that they feature the sport’s top star, the Gold Pride rank sixth among the seven WPS teams in average home paid attendance, at 2,988. Attendance has dropped since the team moved to Cal State from its previous home at Castro Valley High. Marta remains the Bay Area’s best-kept sports secret.
“I’m not seeing much interest at this point in women’s soccer and in the team,” said Ricky Ricardo, owner of Ricky’s Sports Theatre and Grill in San Leandro. “A lot of people got really excited about the World Cup, but that interest isn’t carrying over to women’s soccer yet. I do see potential for it though.”
Ricardo recently received a signed Marta jersey, which he plans to display alongside other Bay Area memorabilia in the bar. But while Marta and her teammates were playing their way into the playoffs Saturday night, Ricky’s patrons were more concerned with the Giants and the A’s.
So for now, Marta remains diplomatic as she waits for local buzz to match her spectacular play.
“I love the fans,” she said through a translator. “They’re very supportive, very welcoming.”
It’s not as if this is the first time she’s had to fight for attention.
Growing up in the small town of Dois Riachos (“two little rivers”) in Northeastern Brazil, Marta had a lot of time to herself. Her father left home when she was 1. Her mother worked long hours for the government.
Left to her own devices, Marta played soccer with the boys.
“I realized that I was very competitive,” she said. “And I realized that I was good at soccer, and so I wanted to play more and more. In order to do that, I had to play with boys.”
Not only did Marta play with the boys, she dominated them. Though smaller than her opponents, she had the skill and quickness to take over the match. In neighborhood games, she was often the first player picked.
And a hobby became an obsession.
“I knew then that it was what I wanted to do with my life,” she said. “I only wanted to be a soccer player.”
Opportunities for girls were scarce, however, and her mother was skeptical. But when Marta left home at 14 to try out for the Vasco da Gama club team in Rio de Janeiro, her life forever changed. She rose quickly through the club and national-team ranks. By 20, she had become the world’s best player.
She had also transformed the culture surrounding women’s soccer in Brazil.
“At one point, girls never played soccer in Brazil,” said FC Gold Pride assistant Vilmar “Vava” Marques, a Brazilian. “It was only for boys. Now, that’s all changed.”
But in her native land, Marta’s impact isn’t limited to gender. She has come to represent all that is good about Brazilian futebol at a time when the country’s sporting identity has been called into question. Considered favorites entering this year’s World Cup, the Brazilian men lost in the quarterfinals. But losing wasn’t the only problem. Far worse: They were boring.
“Playing with style, playing with creativity; that is everything that Brazilian soccer has always been,” said Marques. “The world expects Brazil to play that way. Brazil expects to play that way. Right now, the team doesn’t play that way.”
But Marta does.
“She is everything that Brazilian soccer is supposed to represent," said Marques.
But while she may have evolved into a Brazilian icon, part of the reason Marta plays in WPS is because her country has no top-level women’s league. WPS games were broadcast in Brazil during the league’s inaugural season so that viewers could watch Marta, but the television contract was not renewed this year. She’s loved in Brazil — just not enough for fans to embrace women’s soccer the same way they embrace the men’s game.
The United States doesn’t share Brazil’s historical aversion to women’s sports. As Marta struggles for recognition stateside, her challenge is less about changing cultural bias than about gaining attention in a crowd sports marketplace.
“She’s the best because she plays so hard and with such passion in any situation,” said Montoya. “She’s that way at the big moments of the biggest matches, but she’s also that way when she’s just running, chasing down a ball all by herself."
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