The Equalizer: Martas star to grace women's professional soccer in the U.S.

1/14/09
marta
By Max J. Dickstein

The Equalizer: Martas star to grace women's professional soccer in the U.S.

Photo credit: Game Face

Photo by Getty

By Andrew Keh

Special to amNewYork

In Brazil, there are soccer players whose skills are so transcendent, whose identities are so singular, that they require only one name.

PelÃ©. Ronaldo. Ronaldinho. KakÃ¡.

Marta.

Women’s Professional Soccer conducts its inaugural draft tomorrow in St. Louis. But regardless of what happens then, the Los Angeles Sol already has its jewel.

On Tuesday, the club officially announced its signing of the Brazilian megastar in a reported three-year, $1.5 million deal. That same day, the 22-year-old Marta was named the FIFA World Player of the Year for the third straight time.

Some have scoffed at the viability of a women’s soccer league in America. These same critics are likely to belittle the idea of women’s professional sports in general.

But, as it’s often said, art has no gender. And Marta is surely an artist.Her defining moment on a soccer pitch came at World Cup 2007 in Brazil’s 4-0 semifinal win over the United States. With her team up 1-0 in the first half, Marta received a ball in the left corner of the field, with defender Stephanie Lopez tight on her back. In one motion, she flicked the ball in the air to her left, while spinning around Lopez to her right. After reuniting with the ball on the other side, Marta easily dribbled by another defender to score.

On the play’s corresponding YouTube clip — which has nearly a million views and offers the rapturous description, “Pure Brazilian Talent! Amazing Goal!” — a commentator can be heard saying, in Portuguese, “There are no words…”

Two years ago, David Beckham was brought to L.A. to recapture the star power and magic of PelÃ© during his days with the popular New York Cosmos of the presently now-defunct NASL. The jury on Beckham’s career with the L.A. Galaxy is still out.

Now, another international star — affectionately called “PelÃ© in skirts” in her home country — arrives in the same city with the same goal.

For the record, PelÃ© has acknowledged the similarities between himself and one of the two players, and it was not the Englishman.
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The Equalizer: Martas star to grace women's professional soccer in the U.S.