7 & Left Out Women’s Soccer le was a golazo, i pee =o ean xtrtnaty goal. Marta's second, and her team's foal tee ‘a ‘mantling of the U.S. women’s team in the fom hereon Ut” Womens Word Cap seemed pulled directly Treponema Fels playbook. Receiving a pas just ouside mn near midfield, she flicked it to herself twice. The to their count ry 88 0 pais do futebol: jo futebo!—the count every Wold Cup. which? hose men’s team has qualied a women’ won an jalife men's teams world and regional pore ac ir enti and 20 wer as well, finishing as silver 2008 Olympics as well as the 2007 World cup. One of the world’s most well-known soccer payers at present is prasian: Marta Vieira da Silva, who won FIFA’s woman footballer of the year award five times in a row between 2006 and 2010. Yet the success of the Brazilian women's team in dominating re- onal play and its increasing recognition on the international field hhas not translated into popularity at home. Women's soccer in Brazil has always survived on the fringe, It was illegal from 943 and 3975 (chough the ban was not full lifted until 1979), Between 1999 and 2003, there were no official practices for the team, and only after the 2007 ‘Women’s World Cup did the Brazilian Soccer Confederation create a tournament for women’s teams. Brazilian women who wish to play professionally do so outside of the country; Marta and most of her fellow Brazilian teammates played in the Women’s Professional Soccer league in the United States until it folded in 2012. Many now play in ‘Sweden. “The lack of support at home, however, belies the deep roots of wom- ‘en's soccer in the region, even if those roots are usually obscured. In Brazil and elsewhere in Latin America, women began playing soccer in the early twentieth century. Yet regional soccer histories suggest that women's interest in the game was limited to cheering on their ‘husbands and friends, and ogling the male sex symbols of the day. ‘Women, according to this version of history, had no desire to play. This narrative, however, veers somewhat from the truth. By the late 29208 and early 19208 reports began to appear of women stepPing, ‘onto the field to play soccer. By the gqos wornen played soccer from Costa Rica to Colombia, from Brazil to Mexico. These stores are crucial to under” standing the broad reach of women's soccer in Latin America andactas an important counternarrative £0 the history of the sport, which has ignored women almost entirely. Neatatves occasionally miss things. These oversights can BAPPCh for a number of reasons, not all of them intentional ‘enough written ‘orinterest may be on another realm of history 8 ma) ety of economic history for example). But part of a his- iat to review and revise history, going back to include ele- rornte overlooked or eft out of earlier versions of the story. Women’s soccerin Latin America, however, was not simply overlooked. National sources may not exist Leh Out: Womans Soccer + 209