Women’s World Cup 2015 has been electrifying so far, providing plenty of thrills and spills as well as its fair share of tears. With the tournament well and truly underway, we want to share the profiles of three key players to keep an eye on.
Marta Vieira Da Silva (Brazil)
Marta Vieira Da Silva, more commonly referred to as “Marta”, was born on February 19th, 1986 in Dois Riachos, Brazil. She learned her trade playing street games with other neighborhood children, and often faced discrimination from the boys, who resented being outplayed by a girl. Luckily, this didn’t deter the now five-time Woman’s World Player of the Year. Brazilian coach Helena Pacheco recognized Marta’s ability and got her a place in Vasco da Gama, a Rio de Janeiro-based football club, when she turned 14.
Marta continued to ply her trade in Brazil until she turned 17 when she moved to Sweden, a country with one of the most flourishing women’s football leagues in the world. Here she went on to win an array of trophies and accolades including five consecutive “world player of the year” awards, three Swedish league titles and a UEFA Women’s cup. The superstar, often referred to as “Pelé con faldas” (“Pelé with skirts”), then moved to Los Angeles for a short while to attempt to conquer the Women’s Professional Soccer League, but quickly returned to her footballing home of Sweden.
Now Marta is hoping to carry Brazil to their first ever Women’s World Cup victory. She’s already off to a good start, scoring a penalty against South Korea last week to break the Women’s World Cup scoring record. After helping her country beat Spain this week, Marta is definitely one to keep your eye on at this tournament.
Alex Morgan (USA)
Alex Morgan, born in San Dimas, California on July 2nd, 1989, was a multisport athlete growing up and didn’t actually start playing football until the age of 14. She scored the winning goal in the final of the Under-20 Women’s World Cup in 2008 and a year later became the youngest member of the US national team in preparation to compete in the 2011 World cup in Germany.
She then moved to Seattle to play for the Seattle Sounders and landed a spot in the US national team for the 2012 Olympics in London. Morgan led the USA to a gold medal, taking revenge for losing to Japan in the 2011 FIFA Women’s World Cup final game in 2011. The game was watched by over 80,000 people in the stadium, making it the largest crowd to ever attend an Olympic football game.
She has been involved in every game in the current tournament so far as USA have brushed aside teams in the first round leaving them top of group D. At just 25, this is Morgan’s first real chance to impact the World Cup and she could definitely be the one who might light up the tournament and help take the trophy back to the States.
Celia Sasic (Germany)
Celia Sasic was born in Bonn, in West Germany, on the 27th of June 1988. She was playing for junior sides in Germany from the age of five, after her older brother took her along to a training session. She joined SC 07 Bad Neuenahr at the age of 16 and started playing in the top division of the Women’s German league.
The German Football association approached her in 2004 and she obtained German citizenship allowing her to play for the national team. She suffered a fractured tibia in 2007, putting her on the sidelines for a while including her missing the 2007 world cup.
However Sasic has fully recovered now and has started the tournament in excellent form, scoring three goals in Germany’s opening game against Ivory Coast leading them to a 10-0 win. Germany went on to draw against Norway, and then beat Thailand 4-0, making them one of the favorites to win the tournament.
Of course these are just a few names in a big tournament, with plenty more to look out for, as well as a number of surprise packages still to come. We, at CSOFT, can’t contain our excitement as the Women’s World Cup 2015 tournament is coming into full flow. Please share your thoughts below on your favorite team and how you think the cup will progress.