The plucky forward inspired her team to rout a heavily fancied United States in the first semi-final at the ongoing FIFA World Cup in China. Agreed she scored two goals, but what made her stand apart was her selfless contribution to Brazil's cause.

The 4-0 defeat was one of the biggest loss for a U.S. team in World Cup. The defeat is under increased scrutiny in both the US as well as other countries mainly because benched US goalkeeper Hope Solo has voiced stringent criticism against Coach Greg Ryan.

Ryan's role in the fiasco is also under scrutiny because he inexplicably decided to go with veteran Briana Scurry for the all-important Brazil game. Scurry had not featured at all in the Cup thus far whereas Hope had kept a clean sheet for over 300 minutes.

And she could not contain her bitterness in an ESPN post game interview where she said Ryan made a wrong decision. "There's no doubt in my mind I would have made those saves. And the fact of the matter is it's not 2004 anymore. ... It's 2007, and I think you have to live in the present. And you can't live by big names. You can't live in the past," she raged.

Solo's reaction has not gone down well in her country. Experts feel she could have saved the attack on her team mate. Scurry did not make the decision to keep versus Brazil, Ryan did and hence Solo's attack on Scurry was wrong in the first place, experts feel.

U.S. coach Greg Ryan is under fire and he tried to mend fences by saying the game was over and that they should now concentrate on the third place match against Norway.

For the academically inclined, Brazil took the lead in the 20th minute though an own goal by Leslie Osborne, but the rest of the goals were undoubtedly class. Marta scored two of them, effectively killing the game. But the focus though was on Solo and coach Ryan.

Ryan said before the game that he could live with the goalkeeper switch, but in doing so, he might inadvertently have affected team spirit. The US can now only watch when Brazil take on Germany on September 30 in Shanghai.

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