Brazil's Marta exits World Cup in tears

Marta said Brazilrsquos Womenrsquos World Cup exit at the group stage Wednesday was ldquonot even in my worst nightmaresrdquo as the legendary attacker bid a heartbreaking farewell to the tournamentThe 37yearold arguably the greatest womenrsquos footballer of all time started the game but could do nothing to help Brazil get the goals they needed as their campaign ended in a toothless 00 stalemate with JamaicaSuch a poor showBrazil and Marta are out in the group phase their poorest World Cup performance since being dumped out at the same stage in 1995 ldquoItrsquos hard to talk at a time like this Not even in my worst nightmares was it the World Cup I dreamed ofrdquo said Marta who looked as shellshocked as she was upsetldquoBut it is only the beginning the Brazilian people ask for renewal and there is renewal The only old one is me most of them teammates are young girls with enormous talent itrsquos just the beginning for themAlso Read Womens World Cup to greet its 1 millionth fan as ticket sales surpass 168 millionldquoI end here but they continuerdquo Martamdashnicknamed ldquoPele in a skirtrdquo by the late football greatmdashwill never win the World Cup to add to her many achievements Among them she is the alltime leading goalscorer in World Cups menrsquos or womenrsquos but was unable to add to her tally of 17 in Melbourne ldquoMarta ends here there is no more World Cup for Martardquo said the forward who has been dogged by injury in the twilight of her careerldquoI am grateful for the opportunity to have one more World Cup and very happy with what is happening with womenrsquos football in the worldrdquoCoach wants Marta to playCoach Pia Sundhage said she expects Marta to carry on with her playing career ldquobecause she loves the sportrdquoBut she pointedly added ldquoWhether she is good enough for the national team letrsquos see I am going to look for good players so it will be harder for Marta We need to be better than todayrdquoSouth Africa stun Italy to reach last 16South Africa won a Womenrsquos World Cup match for the first time with a stunning 32 victory over Italy to reach the last 16 in a thriller on WednesdayCaptain Thembi Kgatlana scored the winner in the 92nd minute to make history for South AfricaArianna Caruso scored twice for Italy and thought she had salvaged the draw they needed to go through with 16 minutes left before Thembi Kgatlanarsquos stunning late intervention Caruso scored an 11thminute penalty to put Italy on the way but Italy defender Benedetta Orsi scored an own goal to equalise the gameIn another tie at Hamilton Sweden set up a last 16 showdown with the United States after a Rebecka Blomqvist header and an Elin Rubensson penalty gave them a 20 win over Argentina on Wednesday The result also confirmed Argentinarsquos elimination as South Africarsquos win took the African champions through in second placeThis story has been sourced from a third party syndicated feed agencies Midday accepts no responsibility or liability for its dependability trustworthiness reliability and data of the text Midday managementmiddaycom reserves the sole right to alter delete or remove without notice the content in its absolute discretion for any reason whatsoever