MANAUS, Brazil -- Allie Long is in some ways uniquely suited to play a game in the largest city on the dauntingly vast Amazon River. Her husband is from a Brazilian family. She understands Portuguese better than most of her teammates (or those Americans covering them). She even grew up with a penchant for toucans, for gdness sake, the birds that are surely a better bet to be found in this part of the world than in Portland, Oregon or Paris or Chapel Hill, North Carolina -- or any of the other places soccer has taken her.Manaus is a surprising place to find a major global sporting event. It isnt easy to get here, as far from Rio de Janeiro as Chicago is from Los Angeles and surrounded by largely impassable rainforest.But it is worth the effort. It is a place with a story to tell.Sometimes such circumstances make for the best stories.The clest thing about Allie is the number of times shes been turned down, said Tobin Heath, a teammate now and also at the University of North Carolina nearly a decade ago. And I think in a way that other players would get discouraged, because she loves to play and she has a great belief in herself and her game, she would just always come back.Theres a reasonable chance Long will not be on the field when the United States plays Colombia in the Arena Amazonia in the final game of Group G on Tuesday (6 p.m. ET). That sentence wouldnt have elicited much surprise anytime the past few years. Few would have predicted she would play because few would have predicted shed be here.That she might not play because she is t valuable for what comes next is a change in plot.The United States needs just a draw against Colombia -- which has yet to score in five meetings since 2011 against the U.S. women -- to clinch Group G. With talk of unrest over players going unpaid, the Colombians continue to shed talent. Lady Andrade is expected to miss Tuesdays game with what was termed by team officials as exhaustion. So it is that the United States might seek as much rest as is prudently possible for the legs that expended the most energy in wins in the teams first two games.A 28-year-old veteran who has been on the fringes of the national team for so long that her bio page on the team website doesnt even have the spiffy childhd-pictures-and-favorite-moments treatment, Long started the Olympic opener against New Zealand as a defensive midfielder and played 90 minutes.Then she did it again against France, the third-ranked team in the world.Her role as a No. 6, more pulled back, has helped her because she keeps possession so well for us, Heath said. I feel like she really joins the lines together between the midfield and the defense. She allows us to build out of the back in really great ways. I think shes trying to do simple things really, really well, and thats one of the hardest things in the game to do.That role made all the difference for the United States a year ago in the World Cup when Morgan Brian emerged midway through the tournament as a skilled practitioner of those subtle arts, freeing Carli Lloyd to play a more dedicated attacking role and begin the goal-scoring binge on which the co-captain remains.That isnt Brians natural role, but she remained there much of this year and might yet return to the position in this tournament. It isnt natural either for Lindsey Horan, who partnered with Brian behind Lloyd through much of Olympic qualifying. Brian and Horan are two of the recent wunderkinds of American soccer. Brian, 23, was the youngest player on the World Cup roster a year ago, and Horan, 22, would have just completed her senior year in college if she hadnt instead turned pro out of high schl.Yet as the third member of the trio tasked with filling the No. 6 and No. 8 roles, the often-overlked Long made the group whole.For me, it was nice to be able to play the No. 8 and get in the attack more and have a little bit more free reign to attack and get forward, Brian said after the opening win. I think Allie played great in the No. 6, and I think its great for all three of us midfielders to be able to play any position with how many minutes everyone is going to have to play in such a short period of time.It is quite the turnaround for someone whose international aspirations appeared imperiled when Jill Ellis tk over as coach in 2014. Long appeared in four of the first five games Ellis coached but then vanished, a standout for the Portland Thorns in NWSL but absent for the United States.When Allie was with the team before, when I first tk over, I was pretty up front with her and just said there were certain things I think needed to improve, Ellis said. Tactical positioning, speed of play. But I think she really went away and committed to that.In January, Long wasnt among the 26 players invited to the teams training camp.Ellis said in Manaus that she received numerous reports about how gd Long lked this NWSL preseason -- not just from her own coaches or coaches in the league but from players already on the national team. She said Long also checked in regularly, wanting to know what she needed to do. Eventually, with Olympic qualifying completed and the outlines of a roster seemingly already in place, Long received an invite for the national team camp that preceded multiple spring friendlies against Colombia. She was there again for a pair of June friendlies against Japan.And she was there when the final roster was announced, the least-capped player on the active roster.We didnt have a pure No. 6, and we needed depth in the midfield, Ellis said. I think that gave her a great shot at this, and she seized it with both hands.The coach didnt directly address how small Longs window might have been, but given the timing involved, it is easy to imagine that a bad day or two in those April or June practices, the kind of day every player endures, might have scuttled the whole thing.Little wonder, then, that Alex Morgan had to tell Long to calm down on the bus ride to the opening game; she was t full of energy for the moment that was so long coming. A few nights later Long sat on the dais in the postgame news conference as the player of the match.Its kind of weird because Ive always had to develop outside of the team, Long, who turns 29 on Saturday, said of her path. Where usually you get brought in, you get a couple of camps, you get to develop here against the girls and see where you stand. Right before a world tournament, I kind of got brought in, was in a couple of camps, and didnt make the roster. So I had to go back and develop on my own and make sure I was developing so when I came in I had an impact.Last summer, Long missed out on the World Cup roster and had to watch from afar, one more window shut.Knowing I was so close to it and then watching them, it was definitely tough, Long said. But my closest friends are on the team. Im proud to [cheer for the] USA, and I want them to win and do the best they can, but of course there is a part of me that wished I was there.There are no easy ways to get to Manaus. But Long will be here Tuesday night.T valuable not to play. Unless she is t valuable to play. Alex English Nuggets Jersey . -- Most satisfying to Russ Smith about No. Paul Millsap Jersey . 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Martinez, who sustained a fractured elbow last month, is headed to join the Triple-A Toledo Mud Hens in Durham, N.C., to begin his rehab assignment Tuesday. In what stands as his first significant step back toward a return, Martinez will start out as the designated hitter in the Triple-A Toledo MudHens lineup before resuming duties in the outfield.Im excited because were still in the race, Martinez said following the Tigers 4-2 win over the Boston Red Sox at Fenway Park on Monday night.Martinez said getting his bat and timing back up to speed remains his biggest priority at the moment. He faced live pitching for the first time during the teams most recent road trip in Chicago and said he felt off following a five-week layoff.Rusty, he joked. My swing -- brutal.Martinez said that throwing from the outfield is not an issue at this point. He can already hit a cutoff man throwing from 150 feet. He feeels that swinging the bat, which he expects will put more pressure on his healing elbow, will be a bigger issue.ddddddddddddBut he also has been assured that he wont risk reinjuring his elbow by coming back as sn as possible, as the injury is a pain-tolerant one.[General manager Al Avila] has expressed that he doesnt want me to rush it, Martinez said, though he feels that, even if hes not 100 percent, he can continue to help the Tigers lineup.The 28-year-old, who led the team with 38 home runs last year, had 12 homers, 39 RBIs and was hitting .286 when he suffered the injury after a collision with the right-field wall in a series against the Kansas City Royals in mid-June.Im trying my best to hurry up and get back, Martinez said. We still have a lot of games behind?Cleveland?to make up.Following Mondays victory, the 52-48 Tigers trail the AL Central-leading Indians by 5.5 games and are four back in the wild-card standings. ' ' '