Marta plays for Olympic gold one more time when Brazil meets US in women's soccer final

PARIS (AP) — For her final international tournament with Brazil, Marta is back where it all started.

The six-time world player of the year was just 18 when she first played in the Olympics 20 years ago.

Back then, Brazil reached the gold medal match in Athens but fell to the United States 2-1. The two teams met in the final again at the 2008 Beijing Games, and Brazil again came away with the silver with a 1-0 loss.

So it's fitting that for her international sendoff Brazil again faces the United States in the Olympic final. The two teams meet Saturday at Parc des Princes in Paris.

Marta, now 38, has said that after six Olympics and six Women's World Cups, it's time to hand over the team to the next generation. She has never won a major international title — either at the Olympics or World Cup.

So winning gold and beating the nemesis United States at the same time would be a sweet way to walk away.

“It’s been so much of my life, since I was 14, I left home and then I just live soccer every single day,” she told The Associated Press before the tournament. “I just feel like maybe it’s time to just take a little bit away from that and let the young players shine.”

Marta is well known to the young players on the U.S. team, not just because she's one of the best women to ever play the game, but also because she plays in the United States with the Orlando Pride.

“Marta is for sure the player I looked up to growing up," U.S. forward Sophia Smith said. “Whenever I would watch highlights of players with my dad, it was always Marta.”

The 23-year-old Smith plays for the Portland Thorns.

“We get to play against her in the NWSL, we’re really lucky for that,” she said, "and to play against her in this game, in this magnitude of the game, is so special. I know she would want us to give her our best game. That’s that’s the highest level of respect you can give someone.”

Better known just by her first name, Marta Vieira da Silva has scored a record 119 goals in 184 international appearances.

Marta grew up playing street soccer with the boys in Dois Riachos, a town in eastern Brazil some 1,250 miles north of Rio de Janeiro. She was just 17 when she appeared at the 2003 World Cup, held in the United States.

She has the career record for most World Cup goals with 17, and she has 13 Olympic goals, one away from matching compatriot Cristiane’s record.

“It goes without saying, Marta has changed the game of soccer around the world," U.S. forward Trinity Rodman said. "She is such a talented soccer player, but also a great human, which speaks volumes. I’ve always looked up to her. I think we all kind of do. She’s a legend forever.”

Marta's journey in her final big tournament has not been smooth.

She was handed a red card for a foul on Spain's Olga Carmona in the Brazil's final group-stage match. That merited a two-match suspension from FIFA, so she missed the quarterfinals against hosts France and the semifinals, again against Spain.

Brazil upset the Women's World Cup champions 4-2 in a match Tuesday in Marseille.

“Honestly, in these games Marta was out, we did it for her,” teammate Angelina said. “We want to give her a really great sendoff. It was a dream of mine to play with Marta — and now it’s a dream come true."

AP Summer Olympics: https://apnews.com/hub/2024-paris-olympic-games

Brazil's Marta looks on, ahead of the women's group C match between Brazil and Japan at the Parc des Princes during the 2024 Summer Olympics, Sunday, July 28, 2024, in Paris, France. (AP Photo/Aurelien Morissard)

Brazil's Marta, right, and Spain's Teresa Abelleira battle for the ball during a women's Group C soccer match between Brazil and Spain, at Bordeaux Stadium, during the 2024 Summer Olympics, Wednesday, July 31, 2024, in Bordeaux, France. (AP Photo/Moises Castillo)

Brazil's Marta, center, reacts after receiving a red card from referee Espen Eskas during a women's Group C soccer match between Brazil and Spain, at Bordeaux Stadium, during the 2024 Summer Olympics, Wednesday, July 31, 2024, in Bordeaux, France. (AP Photo/Moises Castillo)

Brazilian soccer player Marta, who is suspended due to a red card, watches the women's semifinal soccer match between Brazil and Spain at the 2024 Summer Olympics, Tuesday, Aug. 6, 2024, at Marseille Stadium in Marseille, France. (AP Photo/Daniel Cole)

Brazil's Marta leaves the pitch after being shown a red card during a women's Group C soccer match between Brazil and Spain, at Bordeaux Stadium, during the 2024 Summer Olympics, Wednesday, July 31, 2024, in Bordeaux, France. (AP Photo/Moises Castillo)

LONDON (AP) — Thousands of tourists, pagans, druids and people simply yearning for the promise of spring marked the dawn of the shortest day of the year at the ancient Stonehenge monument on Saturday.

Revelers cheered and beat drums as the sun rose at 8:09 a.m. (0809 GMT) over the giant standing stones on the winter solstice — the shortest day and the longest night in the Northern Hemisphere. No one could see the sun through the low winter cloud, but that did not deter a flurry of drumming, chanting and singing as dawn broke.

There will be less than eight hours of daylight in England on Saturday — but after that, the days get longer until the summer solstice in June.

The solstices are the only occasions when visitors can go right up to the stones at Stonehenge, and thousands are willing to rise before dawn to soak up the atmosphere.

The stone circle, whose giant pillars each took 1,000 people to move, was erected starting about 5,000 years ago by a sun-worshiping Neolithic culture. Its full purpose is still debated: Was it a temple, a solar calculator, a cemetery, or some combination of all three?

In a paper published in the journal Archaeology International, researchers from University College London and Aberystwyth University said the site on Salisbury Plain, about 128 kilometers (80 miles) southwest of London, may have had political as well as spiritual significance.

That follows from the recent discovery that one of Stonehenge’s stones — the unique stone lying flat at the center of the monument, dubbed the “altar stone” — originated in Scotland, hundreds of miles north of the site. Some of the other stones were brought from the Preseli Hills in southwest Wales, nearly 240 kilometers (150 miles) to the west,

Lead author Mike Parker Pearson from UCL’s Institute of Archaeology said the geographical diversity suggests Stonehenge may have served as a “monument of unification for the peoples of Britain, celebrating their eternal links with their ancestors and the cosmos.”

A person holds up a smart phone as they wait for sunrise during the winter Solstice celebrations at Stonehenge, England, Saturday, Dec. 21, 2024. (AP Photo/Anthony Upton)

Arthur Pendragon poses for a portrait as he takes part in the winter solstice celebrations at Stonehenge, England, Saturday, Dec. 21, 2024. (AP Photo/Anthony Upton)

A person's face is daubed with blue paint as they take part in the winter Solstice celebrations at Stonehenge, England, Saturday, Dec. 21, 2024. (AP Photo/Anthony Upton)

A person's face is daubed with blue paint as they take part in the winter Solstice celebrations at Stonehenge, England, Saturday, Dec. 21, 2024. (AP Photo/Anthony Upton)

People take part in the winter Solstice celebrations at Stonehenge, England, Saturday, Dec. 21, 2024. (AP Photo/Anthony Upton)

People tale part in the winter Solstice celebrations at Stonehenge, England, Saturday, Dec. 21, 2024. (AP Photo/Anthony Upton)

People take part in the winter solstice celebrations during sunrise at Glastonbury Tor in Somerset, England, Saturday Dec. 21, 2024. (James Manning/PA via AP)

People take part in the winter solstice celebrations during sunrise at Glastonbury Tor in Somerset, England, Saturday Dec. 21, 2024. (James Manning/PA via AP)