Her performance in the Olympic is really not impressive, only 2 goals against Cameroon and 1 is PK. Sinclair, Rapinoe, Solo, Lloyd and Miyama all have way better performance than her.
The Olympics is just 6 matches. Marta played way more than just Internation football. The award is for the entire year not just the Olympics. Marta also only had 2 goals she was playing as a CM farther away from goal, ideally meaning less shots and goals from that position. If your basing Marta performance based on her scoring 2 goals, than Solo, Rapinoe, Miyama didn't have better Olympics than Marta.
I watched her matches, she didn't play well. Especially in the match against Japan, she simply try to beat all the defenders rather than create space for her teammates, Brazil's attack got serious problem, she's definitely not close to these I've mentioned.
Once again the Olympics is only 6 matches. Marta played the entire year and has been playing club which none of the players you mentioned did( except Miyama I think).
It's very hard to figure how much club play is weighted during the two big tournament years. Of the top five finishers, three of them (Morgan, Wambach & Sinclair) didnt play club while Marta and Sawa both played for winning clubs.
That's why I say club football should weigh more than WWC and Olympics. Both tournaments are only 6 match long. A club Season is 22 matches plus Euro, S. America(CONMEBOL), Asia(AFC) and OFC all have an Open Club Cup tournaments for their countries. Euro and S. America have Women's Champions League and Copa Libertadores. That is a larger sample size and longer schedule than judgeing a year trophy on 6 matches.
If you include club play Marta is still not on the list. The total of her club and international play does not put her in the conversation. The only reason she is there is because she is Marta. She was tied for 5th in the league with goals this year. Far behind the top 3. You can say she was playing more of a midfield role this season for Tyreso. She was not voted the best MF in the league. Vero Boquette was. Vero Boquette is Marta's teammate at Tyreso, so Marta was not even the best MF on her own club team. Marta should not have been in the top 3 period.
She play CM they are going to have less shot on goal and goals fromt that position. Vero Boquette played the full season at Tyreso Marta didn't. Tied 5th in goals in the league is really good for a person playing the CM role. Your taking credit away from Marta there. Marta deserves to be top 5 based on the criteria of what the award means, Player of the Year, not player of 6 matches. Marta played club SinClair, Morgan, Wambach and others didn't.
Rapinoe scored two goals against Canada in the Semi, which stage Marta didn't even reach. She also got an assist that game, so she matched Marta's total in that game alone. But she also got another goal and two more assists in other matches, so her performance in the Olympics is far superior to Marta's. And Marta only scored ONE goal in the run of play. Rapinoe scored three. Solo had one assist in the Olympics, which matches Marta's assist total for the games, and Marta was playing a position where she was supposed to distribute. How many saves did Marta tally? And Miyama? She took her team to the finals. In fact, All the players mentioned had statistically as good or better Olympics than Marta. You can also add Sinclair, Tancredi, Lloyd, Houghton, Ogimi, Thomis, Christiane, Kim, Fischer, Schelin, Georges, Delie, and Reynard to the list of players who outperformed Marta. If you want to factor in minutes played, add Leroux to the list.
Yo the WPSelite the few matches they played were glorified friends and were treated as such. This point here is moot. The two position are are completley different positions. How many goals did Solo score? If Marta is being judge on the number of goals she scored. Like I said, the award is for the year not 6 matches.
. My friends say you have to pay up. They all like Pliny. Ordinarily, I would agree, but you put Solo on the table. Why is the comparison now moot? Solo had a better Olympics, year, and everything than Marta. She didn't have a better year than a dozen other players in the world. This is a case on Marta getting votes on ancient history, not what she did last year. And add Christen Press to the list of players who had better years.
8Ma: You're talking like the Olympics are the only six matches Abby, Alex, etc. played. Although the competition wasn't difficult, there was Olympic qualifying for CONCACAF. Also, friendlies don't count for nothing, especially well-established friendly tournaments (Algarve) and high-caliber friendly matches (Kirin Cup, Sweden Invitational, USA-GERx2).
. glorified friendlies, not club football. Better year? Marta played club before and after the Olympics plus international matches. Marta had a better year performance than Solo. The dozen player she didn't have better season played both club football and international football. Two of them got few votes Miyama and Abily.
Wambach, Marta, and Sinclair did play a whole season of games. All International games with their National Teams count. Same as all of Messi's Argentina goals counted towards his 91. You can't have it both ways complaining that the USWNT is essentially a club team playing soo many games every year, saying it gives them an unfair advantage against other national teams, and then say those games don't count and only club games do. The club argument is just a chance to exclude North American players. Next year it will be that NWSL isn't a good enough league compared to European leagues because it doesn't have a chance at Champions League. How many games did Marta play for Tyreso? I did not hear about her missing a significant amount of games. Either way she was not the best MF or F in Sweden, let alone best player in the world.
The Olympic are only 6 matches. Your not counting club football which I have stated more than once is important. Marta also had to qualify with Brazil for the Olympics(your not counting that), Brazil played some friendlies(rare), Abily for France played qualifying matches for Euro 2013, friendlies, Cypruss Cup, Olympics, Club football, WCL, and France Open Cup, friendlies against Japan(x2), Germany, Sweden. What the defference between all Club football achievements.
Factor in how "difficult" Brasil's qualifiers in COMNEBOL were.... And Brasil's record in other international play. Did they beat any top 10 teams?
I agree they all played international matches. That's not club football which is a 22 match season for most of the top leagues. Messi's goal were for the year in a record that was goals scored, it specify just club, international or both. Completely different than POTY award.
Factor in how diffcult it was for us to win CONCACAF? Your ingoring club football seasons and achievements.
Thanks. There's another player who had a better year than Marta. But I'm puzzled why you mentioned this. It doesn't seem to help your case.
The USA had to beat the # 5 team in the WORLD to win qualifiers. Brasil had to beat like the 43rd team in the world and had to from behind to do it. Her club play was nice, but only nice. She wasnt the best in her league or in the Euro club competitions. I'm not sure why you keep bringing up her club play. She wasn't the best club player.
It does help my case, cuz my case from the start(not this thread) involved players that played international football and club football. Not just one and not the other. Once again your ignoring the point of club football having weight in determining Fifa POTY awards.