Cristiane: Brazil's players must deal with the weight of history
Brazil need to win their final Group F fixture to make sure of qualifying for the knockout stage.
Cristiane scored hat-trick against Jamaica in 2019
One of her strikes won the prestigious Goal of the Tournament accolade
Brazil must beat the Reggae Girlz to be certain of 2023 progress
On 9 June 2019, Jamaica played a FIFA Women’s World Cup™ match for the first time, breaking new ground for female football lovers in the Caribbean. But that match against Brazil in Grenoble, France, was not important only for the Jamaican people, it provided Brazilian forward Cristiane with one of her greatest memories.
She hit all three goals in A Seleçāo's victory, which was her only hat-trick in the five World Cups she has appeared in. Moreover, one of the goals was voted as the Goal of the Tournament, as she became the first player in history to score more than two goals in three different World Cups (2007, 2011 and 2019).
“We have a lot of history behind us,” says Cristiane in an exclusive interview with FIFA. “We’ve fought for the women’s game to become a big deal, and it’s happened. We’ve come a long way and when people talk about our achievements, I’m reminded of them.”
Fate has brought the two teams together again four years later, this time without Cristiane, and this time in a decider that may see one of the teams knocked out. The forward dispatched Jamaica last time, but in 2023, she is not in the squad for the Group F encounter.
On the other hand, Jamaica are a different proposition nowadays. In the current edition, they have drawn against France, beaten Panama and could knock out Brazil. The South Americans need to win to make sure of qualifying for the knockout stage, but could make progress with a draw if the already eliminated Panamanians beat France.
In their quest for victory, Brazil could do worse than draw inspiration from the magic shown by Cristiane in 2019, and the 11 goals in total she scored over five World Cups.
“It’s in their hands! It’s up to them to come through in decisive moments and learn from the past. Historically speaking, my generation and the preceding ones did the groundwork to provide the foundations for today’s players. Let’s see how they deal with the weight of history,” adds Cristiane.
In 2019, when walking off the pitch after the win against Jamaica, she looked ahead to a very bright future: “I couldn’t be happier! I gave my all to do my bit when it was most needed. Today it was me, tomorrow it will be another girl.”
The “tomorrow” mentioned by Cristiane has arrived. The next chapter of the story she began to write against Jamaica will be complete on Wednesday 2 August, with a different lead star.
Jamaica only brings happy memories for Cristiane, and Pia Sundhage's side will hope to deliver more on Wednesday.
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