USWNT vs. Brazil: A heated rivalry explained in four classic games

Starting for Brazil in this match was an 18-year-old phenom named Marta. She'd scored multiple goals in the Olympics already, and expectations for her career were high. She'd go on to blow every single one of those expectations out of the water. Marta stayed a Brazilian national team regular for the next 20 years — she's featured in every big USWNT-Brazil clash since, and she'll likely feature in the friendlies the two teams will play this week, too.

Olympic final, July 2008. The USWNT entered the match — and the tournament — as favorites, but a last-minute injury to Wambach meant it traveled to China without its top attacker. The goals were going to have to come from somewhere else. But for much of the final, it didn't look like they would.

The USWNT and Brazil played out a punishingly physical 0-0 draw to take the final to added time. Six minutes in, striker Carli Lloyd finally broke the deadlock, and her goal was enough to seal things for the USWNT.

It was a grand victory, but one that largely came against the run of play, and Brazilian legend Marta was in tears by the time she received her silver medal. It was her second time being on the losing end of a USWNT added-time winner in an Olympic final. "I have no idea why we can't win a final," she said. "It's something I'm gonna keep asking myself for a long time."

World Cup quarterfinal, July 2011. The USWNT entered the 2011 World Cup in a rough place: it hadn't won the tournament (or even made the championship game) since 1999. With a golden generation featuring players like Alex Morgan and Megan Rapinoe coming into their prime, expectations were high for the team — but things nearly fell apart at the quarterfinal stage when it faced a Brazil side hungry for revenge from 2008.

Things started out well for the USWNT; it scored via a Brazil own goal in the second minute and led for much of the game. But Marta changed the game's tone by sinking a penalty in the 68th minute to tie the game at 1-1. Brazil took over the momentum in extra time, scoring in the 92nd minute, but the USWNT leveled things through Wambach at the last possible moment. (Seriously, the last one: At 122 minutes, her goal came in the added time of the added time.)

Off to penalties the two teams went. The USWNT sank all five of its penalties, no doubt inspired by Wambach's late equalizer, and won the match. Brazil, rightfully, was furious.

Olympic final, July 2024. The last time the USWNT and Brazil met, they were contesting an Olympic gold medal under the Parisian sun. The USWNT came out on top thanks to a perfectly placed Mallory Swanson shot, but the game was a tight, tense affair full of aggression and attrition. "If you watched our Olympic final, it was not like any other game at the Olympics," USWNT captain Lindsey Heaps grinned in a recent news conference. And she was right: Brazil's forward push and relentless one-on-one dueling made the game incredibly difficult.

With this match less than a year in the past, Heaps expects it to inform these friendlies. 

"There will be some control, some football, we hope," she said. "But obviously, just going into the game, you know it's going to be a difficult one. We'll capitalize on our chances because we might not get that many."

The USWNT and Brazil will face off on Saturday, April 5 in Los Angeles at 2 p.m. PT, then again on Tuesday, April 8 in San Jose at 7:30 p.m. PT.