There was a moment in the 2024 NWSL semifinal when Barbra Banda was receiving treatment, and the cameras zoomed in on a set of water bottles.
One of them had a tape label with a bold “MARTA’S” on one side. It immediately brought to mind the image of Bugs Bunny offering a ragtag team of basketball players a water bottle labeled “MIKE’S SECRET STUFF” in “Space Jam.”
You could be forgiven for thinking Marta, at 38 years of age, has a water bottle of pure performance the way she’s been playing this season, but her goal to put the Orlando Pride past the Kansas City Current in the 82nd minute was pure GOAT material, even by her standards.
Marta and Barbra Banda delivered the magic moments the team needed in an otherwise tight match that had, for the most part, been fought out in the defensive margins. They have now denied the Kansas City Current, another team attempting to rewrite their story from losing club to championship-worthy, the chance to play at home in the final.
“You can see the belief in this team,” Pride head coach Seb Hines said. “Even when they’re going one-nil down, they want to continue to get back into the game and then get the second and the third. And we did something that a lot of teams haven’t done, scored three goals against a good KC team.”
Going into the semifinal, more than one person could have predicted it would be a real contest of wills. Both teams have strength in every line of their formations, both teams have goalkeepers on good seasons, and both teams have an outstanding scoring threat who can be played in on transition.
For a long stretch of the game, it seemed that both teams would struggle to find separation, especially as the first two goals were just as much about defensive lapses as they were about creation.
KC struck first as Orlando retreated lower into their half, sitting a little deeper and swarming Temwa Chawinga the moment she so much as looked at their goal. But that pull on their focus opened up opportunities for other KC players.
Kylie Strom and Emily Sams, normally quite savvy about the space in their defensive third, got suckered by trying to hold off Chawinga, leaving room for Michelle Cooper and Debinha to operate. Cooper wasn’t shut down in the box and she perfectly weighted a ball around the center backs, splitting the space between them and Anna Moorhouse and providing service right to Debinha’s feet. She slammed the ball into the netting on the far post to make it 1-0 in the 33rd minute.
The defensive lapse that led to Orlando’s first goal was perhaps more egregious. Orlando opened up in response to the goal and as they flooded the box in anticipation of Ally Watt’s service from outside, center backs Alana Cook and Kayla Sharples were stuck man-marking in front of goal. No one picked up Haley McCutcheon running into space and slamming home Watt’s cross, between Cook and Sharples.
The second half was a different story.
Orlando started still somewhat compact, but more willing to open up to release Banda. It was a deceptively simple ball from Strom that found purchase with her. Strom dropped it for Banda, who was being marked touch-tight by Kayla Sharples at the top of the box. Banda simply bodied Sharples, taking control of the space and letting the ball bounce past them. Schult didn’t bite, allowing Banda to whirl on Sharples and hammer the ball in to make it 2-1 in the 53rd minute.
And then, 30 minutes later, the magic of Marta. Despite her age, still no one can awe an entire stadium like she can. The playback of her goal, Orlando’s third, is almost comical for the way defenders fall over at her feet, two of them stabbing out at the ball at the same time and falling over in unison, Schult trying to come out and getting juked, a third defender desperately racing towards Marta in a last-ditch effort. All for naught as Marta puts paid to any notions that she’s getting too old for any of this.
A stoppage time penalty for a handball in the box made it 3-2 off of Vanessa DiBernardo’s well-placed shot, but it wasn’t enough.
Just last month, on the eve of Orlando winning the NWSL Shield, Marta told The Athletic that she wanted to play another two years.
On a gorgeous sun-soaked evening in Orlando, Marta sealed Kansas City’s fate and continued to write her own.
Additional reporting: Jeff Rueter
(Top photo: Nathan Ray Seebeck / Imagn Images)