June 2, 2017 at Seminole Soccer Complex
Availability: F Marta Vieira da Silva
F Marta Vieira da Silva
(translated from Portuguese)
Marta is so far “adoring” her time in Orlando.
Well, I’m adoring it. I’m really enjoying living here—the city, the weather, living the day-to-day life of American soccer, especially considering the love the fans put out for us in the short period of time that we’ve been here. Things just have to improve on the field. We’ve lost some very important points, but I believe we have a very competitive team and enough conditions to start winning and earn those important points.
For Marta, creating chances isn’t a problem for the Pride. It’s about finishing those chances.
We have to be more effective. We create a lot of opportunities. You can see in almost every single game [that] we created a lot, we had a lot of clear opportunities to score, and we’ve made very few. So we have to be more effective in that sense and take advantage of our very high passing percentage in games and convert into that being an important factor in our effort during games.
Marta is a fan of the Brazilian food scene in Orlando.
Sometimes I go out with the girls. We’re always looking for something to do. When we start missing our Brazilian food, there are a few options of Brazilian restaurants, and we go. I still haven’t been to the parks to fully enjoy them because there’s so much to do. You need a lot of time to fully enjoy them. Since we have practice every day, we have to be very careful not to tire ourselves out so that we’re ready for practice the next day. But I know I still have a lot of time to enjoy them.
I’ve been to a churrascaria called Boi Brazil, and I’ve been to Camila’s, a more traditional restaurant. They’re both on International Drive, and I know I’m doing free advertisement here, but they are very nice people. They always welcome me, and I’m sure they’ll do the same to you guys if you want to go enjoy and taste a little bit of our Brazilian culinary.
When asked about her expectations for the match against the Boston Breakers on Saturday, Marta had one word on her mind: win.
Win. Win. Win the game. We ended up losing three very important points on the road against a team that since the first instance gave us the opportunity to build a victory, but we ended up having some difficulties and lost these three points. So playing at home, in front of our crowd, knowing the importance of the points in play, our mindset is on one thing: win and win.
We need the points, considering we are low on the table. We know this win is important especially because we are going into a break where everyone is going to their national teams. So we want to leave this environment on a positive note with a feeling that we are growing so that we can peacefully go to our national teams, do our work, so that when we return we are even more motivated to continue our growth this season.
For Marta, when her team starts off slowly, she doesn’t try to do anything differently.
I don’t think that differs from all of the other times I enter the field, independent of who I’m representing. I’m always trying to do my best. I always want to win, overcome obstacles. I always want to help in any way I can. This is my objective, making sure our team starts playing the football we know we are capable of. So in order for that to happen, we have to be doing well in practice. Psychologically, we have to be happy, and I always try to make that happen within a group, whether it’s on or off the field. I’m always trying to interact with the girls, help them, making sure everyone is doing ok. I play when it’s time to play but also take everything very serious when we have to.
Marta is joined by Brazilian teammates Monica Hickmann Alves and Camila Martins Pereira.
Of course, that helps a lot. Sometimes we need someone who speaks the same language as we do, to give us some support, and we definitely help each other a lot. I talk a lot with Camila, with Monica. We try to help each other as much as possible so that, within the team, we can do our best, together, all with one common objective: That is conquer wins and more wins so that we can get to be one of the top four teams and fight for the championship.
Having a fighting, winning mentality is what Marta wants to see from her teammates.
I think we need to have a lot of fight within us. We need to want to win the entire time. We need to always be trying to be the best we can. I’ve been through so many competitions. I’ve won so many things, and I lost some too, but I have always been eager and hungry for the win. I’ve always wanted to be among the best. So it’s this eagerness that I try to pass on to the team. It is important to maintain high standards in competitions like these.
Marta feels she has developed good personal relationships with all of her teammates.
I think I get along with everybody. I get this sense of freedom that allows me to interact with everyone, with no restriction or differences. So, for me, it’s really hard to speak about only one athlete because I get along with basically all of them, and, believe it or not, it feels as if we’ve all known each other for a very long time. There’s a family environment within the team. We’re all very playful and everyone is really close to one another.
