No More Kicks

Brazil is something of a miracle team. The group has barely played together since it made it to the Olympic finals three years ago. But its players are so gifted and entrancing to watch that it gives credence to those who believe in a Brazilian soccer gene. Most entrancing of all is Marta, who today scored the 10th and 11th World Cup goals of her career, breaking the record of nine held by Hamm. While Hamm attained her mark in four World Cups, Marta has played in only two—and is still just 21 years old.

The U.S. team will play for the bronze this weekend, the same medal it won in the last World Cup. Then members will have to take a tough look at their performance. It has been eight years since the American victory in the '99 World Cup, one that was supposed to inspire a whole new generation that was expected to maintain U.S. preeminence at the game. That has now been exposed as wishful thinking. The third-place game against Norway will probably mark the end of the career of Lilly, the team's inspirational leader. She hasn't yet officially retired, though before the World Cup her teammates had vowed repeatedly to send her out on top. Now they are likely to try and coax her to stick it out one more year when the team will return to China for the Olympics and, hopefully, redeem itself.

Here's betting she stays home. Lilly has started every World Cup and Olympic game in U.S. women's soccer history and has an exceptional grasp of the game. Surely she saw what all of us saw. This American team wasn't anywhere near ready to win this World Cup and nothing suggests that they will be ready in a year's time to compete with Germany or Brazil.

© 2007