Time for Brazil to Become Heroines and Inspire a Nation to Greatness

On Tuesday night, under the bright lights of the Maracana Stadium, Brazil take on Sweden for a place in the Olympic final of the women’s football tournament.

It is time for Brazil to go from hopefuls to heroines.

In just about every sport throughout this Rio Olympics, the crowd support has been fantastic, from the fans booing judges at the gymnastics when a score is deemed too low to the partisan crowd cheering on Rafael Nadal against Argentine Juan Martin del Potro.

In the football tournament, things on the men’s side didn’t quite start as the host nation would have hoped, with goalless draws against Iraq and South Africa. Luckily, the women’s team, led by their inspirational captain, picked up the baton and showed what a Brazilian team was capable of doing.

?? Marta has been the best player in the world from the moment she stepped onto the scene. Has never changed.

— WoSo Comps (@WoSoComps) August 14, 2016

Marta Vieira da Silva, better known as just Marta, has bounced back from a poor FIFA World Cup in Canada last summer to capture the imagination of the home nation, something that never seemed possible in the past.

Amazingly, it was illegal to play women’s football in Brazil from 1941 to 1979, as the ruling military dictatorship declared that the game was “incompatible with the female form.”

The current league system, the Campeonato Brasileiro de Futebol Feminino, was only founded in 2013. Sponsored by Caixa Economica Federal, the second-largest government-owned financial institution in Latin America, costs are covered, but sponsorship and media opportunities are scarce.

Brazil’s stars don’t play locally; they can’t. The financial reward is just not enough. Marta was discovered playing for Vasco da Gama 16 years ago, and after four years in Brazil she moved to Europe, joining Swedish side Umea IK.

She has covered the globe playing the beautiful game, from Los Angeles to New York, with a 12-game spell for Santos squeezed in between. However, the majority of her formative years have been spent in Sweden. So it’s fascinating that Sweden will be Brazil’s opponents on Tuesday and the team standing in the way of Olympic gold.

All eyes will be firmly placed on Marta during the semi-final. She is the talisman, the heart of the team, and with every game that passes, it seems that perceptions in the country are changing.

Brazil put in a superb performance in the opening game against China. Winning 3-0, the goals were spread through the team, and Marta was involved in nearly everything they did well. Cristiane, not to be forgotten, scored the third in injury time, securing her spot as the all-time top scorer in …

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